Of Shades and Light
by Jade MacGrath
Summary: Elizabeth is a Level Five escapee that just wants to go back to her family. Unfortunately for her, though, Sylar has decided she's going to be his next prey... Sylar/OC, R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Of Shades and light

Disclaimer: If I owned Heroes, Elle Bishop would still be around.

Rating: PG-13 for now, R in later chapters

Pairing: Sylar/OC (Elizabeth Porter)

Summary: Elizabeth is a Level Five escapee that just want to go back to her family. Unfortunately for her, Sylar has decided she's going to be his next prey...

Spoilers: It's set during the Villains arc, from 3x03 till the finale.

Note: before this one I wrote a fic where Elizabeth and Sylar were old friends and Sylar killed Lizzie's fiancé without knowing. While I was writing the finale (I still am, actually, since I'm the queen of procrastinators) I started thinking 'what if Lizzie's never left the mental institution her mother took her to when she was a child?'. Here's the answer : )

***

When the door of her cell suddenly opened and everything went dark, Elizabeth was the only evolved human in Level Five not rejoicing. She watched the other prisoners from behind the glass going to free Echo and the other inmates with restraints, but no one worried to look at her. She didn't know if feel relieved or offended…

"What the hell are you still doing there? Get out, doll, we're leaving!" said Echo, entering her cell. He moved closer to take her arm, but suddenly he let his hand fall to his side. He didn't miss that the gesture frightened the young girl even more.

"Oh, look at her… she's dead scared," smirked Knox, watching Elizabeth from the other side of the glass. "Keep going like this, blondie, it's been a long time since I got my last fix…"

Elizabeth shot him a death glare, and almost immediately Knox's smile disappeared from his face, his happiness and excitement completely gone.

"Bitch."

Elizabeth smiled briefly, and Echo took the occasion to remind the girl it was their only occasion to get out from their personal hell. A special type of hell that in Elizabeth's case had lasted for the last twenty years, even if her prison mates ignored it. Elizabeth smiled again, and took from a hidden corner under her bed a little piece of paper. She folded it neatly and put it in her pocket.

"Let's go."

"Good girl."

"Don't overestimate yourself," hissed Flint. "Just because your cell door opened…"

"Leave her alone," said Jesse. Elizabeth shot him a curious look. Since when did Jesse, Knox's partner-in-crime, care for her? But soon Jesse was distracted by the girl lying on the floor. Elle, if she wasn't mistaken. And Jesse was worried about her wellbeing, she could feel it clearly… but it wasn't the right time to stop and think about the weird behavior of her 'friend'. They had to run away, and the faster they could, the better.

***

Elizabeth could tell that only Jesse and Echo were happy she managed to escape with them. Knox, Flint and the German felt very angry and resentful towards her… and she couldn't exactly blame them since she had messed up with their heads since day one, to dampen the evil feelings inside of them with her empathy and to stop having a panic attack every other day because of that. It was only thanks to her ability if she had discovered that other trick of her power, a type of empathy so rare and powerful that had prevented her from having a normal life since she was a child. Something that would be very useful once she went back home to Missouri.

She just have to convince Jesse and Echo, and then let them influence the others… she would boost the influence projecting positive feelings into them. Flint, the German and Knox thought of them as the leaders… they couldn't even imagine that Level Five youngest resident Elizabeth Porter could do to them, and for her own sake, she hoped they would never find out. That implied keeping a low profile until they all were far enough from New York, and closing her eyes in front of the violence perpetrated by her companions, because she needed not to be seen as a menace.

That was why she didn't say a thing (even if Jesse, for some reason, expected her to) when Knox and the others decided to rob a bank. She also didn't say a thing because the way Knox killed Echo in front of her was still vivid in her mind. Knox was a true villain; in order to survive, she had to avoid getting on his bad side— well, more than she already was, anyway, especially after she calmed down the hostages with her power. Knox felt his strength fading, and grabbed Elizabeth by the neck.

"What do you think you're doing, huh?"

Elizabeth felt like she couldn't breathe, but for different reasons. Knox's hand on her… it burned like fire. Her heart started beating faster and faster, terrified by the man that was touching her, and a few seconds later Knox let her go. Elizabeth fell on the floor, breathing heavily, and Knox smiled.

"Much better, now," he smirked, looking at the crying girl at his feet. Elizabeth raised her eyes, and saw that only Jesse was looking at her with something similar to compassion. The others were just laughing at her. God, how much she hated them… and still, she couldn't bring herself to do again what landed her in Level Five in the first place. They were villains, they deserved it… but she wasn't a killer. Her rule had just one exception, and was about the people that tortured her since she was a child. She remembered all their names, and was determined to make them suffer as much as she had at their hands.

When Knox killed the German, Elizabeth started to worry for herself. She tried to keep everyone calm, but all her good proposition went out of the window when she saw who the police was sending inside the bank to negotiate. The man with the horn-rimmed glasses. The son of a bitch that took her kicking and screaming self in Level Five two years earlier and put her in the hands of another type of torturers.

Elizabeth hid behind a desk, where a few hostages had been, and observed the fight between the Company agent, Knox and Jesse, that the agent called Peter. When the situation escalated – and Jesse stopped being a good guy, for some reason that the girl didn't understand – another guy came into play. A tall, dark-haired young man, that probably worked with Horn-rimmed Glasses. One of us, one of them… even Elizabeth knew that was the Company policy. But there was more to him than it met the eye. A inner struggle. Light and darkness, engaged in battle… and the darkness was winning. Just, no one had realized that yet, not even the dark-haired man. But he eventually did, realized Elizabeth, when he telekinetically nailed Jesse against a glass window and cut his head open. Elizabeth was frozen in fear, but noticed that Flint was slowly escaping that place, and probably praying not to be the next to die by that guy's hand.

When Elizabeth moved, unfortunately, the other agent noticed her from the other side of the glass. Probably she should've felt guilty about leaving Flint behind, but she didn't have a doubt he would've done the same to her. Plus, she had tasted freedom for the first time in twenty years; no one would convince her to renounce to it.

Elizabeth couldn't know it, but Gabriel – Sylar – had come to the same conclusions as she. He was just a killer, his mother was wrong about him. There was no point in going back to New York, not when his nature was urging him to go back killing and acquiring new abilities. And speaking of new abilities… he now had Jesse's power, but he was sure that in the bank there was at least another power worth to steal. Pity the German was dead; he would've loved magnetokinesis. Flint was already back in custody, Knox escaped him and Bennett… but what about the girl? Witnesses said that the gang was composed by four men and a blonde, young girl…

Sylar smirked.

He had just found himself another prey to hunt.


	2. Chapter 2

"What does it mean 'he escaped', Noah?"

Noah Bennet didn't let Angela's sweet tone fool him for a second. He knew that the older woman in front of him was full of rage because Sylar had proved her theories wrong and disappeared. She was just incredibly good at not showing it, as she always was.

"You were the one that thought possible to tame that animal, Mrs. Petrelli. I warned you."

"And you are only just a little too happy to tell me that, aren't you?" said Angela, sitting behind her desk.

"You're wrong. I'm not happy. At all."

"Then prepare to be even more unhappy. I want Gabriel back here, where he belongs."

Noah narrowed his eyes. "I came back only to help with the Level Five escapees. Not to be a nanny to your psychopath _son_."

Angela smiled, and Noah started to worry.

"What if you could do both things at the same time?"

"I don't understand."

"I think you do. According to Flint, this girl," and she gave Bennet a Company file, "was with Knox and the others during the robbery. I think you should remember her."

"Yeah… I do," said Bennett, smirking at the photo. "Isabel Parker. Emotion manipulation. She killed twenty people trying to escape from a psychiatric hospital. I took her personally to Level Five two years ago."

"Gabriel knows as much, too. I only met one person with that type of empathy, and I assure you that in the wrong hands it can become a very dangerous weapon. It's also a very rare ability. Find her, and you'll find Gabriel. Then, bring both of them back here. Alive."

"I'll do my best."

"I'm sure you will, Noah. You can go, now," said Angela, and Bennet rose from the chair, to get out of her office. Once in the corridor, he let the mask of kindness slip from her face. Maybe Isabel could be brought back alive, but Sylar… the memory of the day when he discovered what he had done to his precious Claire mixed up with the one of the damned day when he had followed his orders and helped create that monster. He made a terrible mistake that day, but luckily for him it was a mistake he could put remedy to.

He opened Isabel Parker's file, and the first thing he read made him raise an eyebrow. According to her old doctors, she was affected by an autistic spectrum disorder similar to Asperger's syndrome. No trace of family or of an address where she could possibly go to, except for the psychiatric hospital's. A disturbed 25 year old girl that never lived a day in the real world, with no money and no family, and with a serial killer on her trail?

He would do her a favor by bringing her back to the Company.

***

Elizabeth stopped running when her knees gave up and she fell on the ground. Did she put enough distance between herself and the Company agents? She didn't know, but she hoped so.

_What now?_

Elizabeth realized with a shiver she had no idea of what to do. She had never lived a day in the outside world, and the mere idea of asking someone to help her scared her to death. She just wanted to go home, to her parents and most of all Grandma Daphne…

"Miss, do you need help?"

Elizabeth looked with fear the forty-something man that had just spoken to her, even if she could tell that man just wanted to help her. But the problem with him was simple: he was a man. And too many men had hurt her mentally and physically in the last twenty years. She would never allow herself to forget, and once she would have so time to think of a plan, she would make sure neither her torturers would ever forget her.

Elizabeth jerked away from the hand he was laying on her arm to comfort her, and before she knew it the man was on the floor, unconscious. Elizabeth's instincts told her to run, that she couldn't be found next to him, dead or alive, but in her head sounded loud and clear the voice of her grandmother, her companion and support during her years in hell. She always repeated her when she was little that a girl needed a man and money in her purse, but that just the first one wasn't really necessary. Elizabeth never understood it when she was a child, but now, in front of that unconscious man, things started to get a little clearer. And after apologizing to him, she started looking for his wallet.

She was lucky, she discovered. The man's wallet was full of money. Elizabeth once again checked his pulse, to be sure he was still alive, and then she ran away again. Or at least, she tried. She wasn't used to run, and now that the adrenaline rush had ended its effect on her, she was too tired to run like she did earlier. But she could still walk fast. She just had to find a train or a bus station and find a way to get to Dittmer, Missouri. Her hometown. Once there… well, she would think of a way to find her family later. She took advantage of the public toilet at the railway station to adjust her hair and clothes, trying desperately not to look like a frightened fugitive… without much success. It also didn't help all the new feelings and emotions inside her head; Elizabeth found a corner, and let herself fell down on the floor, trying to be invisible. The confusion in her head was unbearable, almost painful… Elizabeth shut her eyes and took a deep breath, trying not to fight the confusion. She cursed silently. It wasn't the best moment to increase her knowledge of human emotions, but it was the only thing she could do. She couldn't concentrate on anything else, and in order to escape the state and go home she had to control that absurd ability of hers perfectly. She remembered well what could happen if she would lose control of it.

Sylar watched the blonde girl in the corner and smirked, happy his guess ended up to be right. Isabel slowly got up on her feet, holding a hand on her forehead. She looked in pain, but it didn't stop her from buying a ticket to St. Louis, and another one from there to Dittmer. And the clerk behind the desk was smiling too much not to be under some kind of influence… but after all it was written in her profile: she was mentally unstable, not stupid. And the power of manipulating emotions… Sylar felt once again the hunger growing inside of him, the excitement that preceded the killing of his prey. What he didn't expect, though, was to meet a couple of light blue eyes looking straight into his. From the other side of the hall, Isabel was staring right back at him.

Elizabeth was paralyzed. Those feelings… she never felt them before, but they were scaring her to death. Suck a deep, dark desire… excitement… she looked around, trying to find the source of those horrible feelings, and she found herself staring at the Company agent that earlier that day killed Jesse in the bank. It was him… Elizabeth knew from her limited experience that all Company agents were blindly devoted to the cause and morally gray at best, but that man was completely different. And definitely more dangerous. The feelings she couldn't name grew in intensity; Elizabeth, scared, turned and started to run towards the tracks.

Sylar ran after her immediately. The girl went straight to where the trains were, she tried to meddle within the crowd. Little she knew that his chaser knew exactly on which train he would find her. Sylar got on the train a moment before it left the station, and he slowly began his search.

Elizabeth found a free seat, and let herself fall on it. God, she never felt more tired in her life… or in the last two years. As crazy as it was, Level Five had been almost a vacation compared to the years spent in the psychiatric hospitals. They basically let her be… they studied her, mostly. They didn't wound her, or burn her, or play with drugs to see how her neural system and her ability would react. She was covered in scars, and she could tell the story of every single one. When they tested her power they knew what to do, and didn't harm her more than necessary…

"You look like hell, dear," said the elderly lady sat next to her. Elizabeth jumped, startled by the voice, but the lady smiled and apologized.

"I didn't want to frighten you. Is everything ok?"

"I wish I knew."

"Where are you going?"

The lady looked nice; Elizabeth couldn't feel nothing dangerous coming from her, and decided to trust her.

"Home. I'm going home."

"You don't have any baggage with you?"

"I travel light," Elizabeth replied with a smile, but the woman wasn't buying her lie. The pity, the concern she was feeling in her… Elizabeth lowered her eyes and realized in that second that the scars on her right arm were visible from wrist to elbow. Elizabeth immediately folded her arms, and didn't dare meet again the woman's eyes. She could feel tears menacing to come out at every second.

"What happened to you?"

"I… I don't want to talk about it. Please."

Elizabeth heard the door of the carriage open, and tensed immediately just to sigh in relief when she felt it was just an ordinary woman and not her chaser.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Not the kind you're thinking of, I swear," Elizabeth replied. The slight distrust she felt disappeared immediately; the woman believed her… and felt sorry for her.

"You look cold, dear. Are you cold?"

The right word in Elizabeth's opinion was 'freezing', since it was fall and she wasn't wearing any jacket, but she slightly nodded. What she didn't expect was for the woman to bend toward a battered duffel bag and gave her to her.

"I was going to give these clothes away to the Salvation Army. My niece is about your size… maybe there's something you could wear here."

Elizabeth couldn't believe her ears. Was that woman volunteering to help her? She look deeper inside of that woman's soul, but there was no trace of evilness in her thoughts. Elizabeth took the bag and murmured a 'thank you', before getting up and almost running to the bathroom to change clothes. She sighed happily when she found a long-sleeved shirt and a hoodie in the bag, along with a pair of jeans. With that clothes on she looked almost… normal. A normal 25 years old girl. But she wasn't. She was on the run. Elizabeth wondered if the Company knew about her family… but she didn't think so. To everyone, she was Isabel Parker. The doctors that stole her from her family worked hard to convince her of that. But it didn't take, for some reason. It was like her brain simply refused to be manipulated that way… and she was just nine, still a child, when they tried to brainwash her. But in the end, she just wanted to make the pain stop. If they wanted to call her Isabel, fine by her. But she never forgot who she really was.

Sylar kept moving from carriage to carriage, looking for Isabel, but that girl was nowhere to be found. He saw her boarding the train, but after that moment Isabel literally disappeared…

Sylar stopped walking. He could distinctly hear a racing heartbeat not far from where he was. The heart was racing so fast… He heard that sound before. It was fear, the same fear his victims felt just before dying. Sylar smirked. Isabel was right to be scared. He started looking at every blonde girl in the carriage, coming closer and closer to the racing heartbeat with every step. Now even Sylar's heart was beating faster. The hunt was over; now he would finally collect his prize.

Elizabeth's hand froze just before she grabbed the doorknob. That Company agent… she could feel him coming closer and closer to where she was. He wanted to harm her… _kill her_? Elizabeth couldn't understand the emotions he was feeling. The excitement and desire in him resembled the feelings a man felt when he was attracted by a woman, but it wasn't her he was so obsessed about… Elizabeh felt someone walking slowly in the corridor, stopping exactly in front of the door behind which she was hiding. She chocked a sob pressing her hand on her mouth, and gave a look around, looking for something she could use as a weapon… but there was nothing. She was trapped…

Sylar opened the lock with a twitch of his finger, and the door slightly opened. He could hear the girl gasping in fear. He smiled, ready to go inside…

"Excuse me, sir?"

Sylar took a deep breath and plastered a fake smile on his face. He turned his back to the toilet door, so that his prey couldn't escape, and saw a ticket inspector right in front of him.

"May I see your ticket?"

"I'm sorry… I don't have it with me right now."

Unfortunately for him, that woman have heard that line too many times and knew when it was a lie. And, unfortunately for her, Sylar was already planning how to kill her. She facilitated things for him with her stubborn decision to take him where the other inspectors where, so they could kick him out of the train at the next station. Pity for the young girl and the two old men, though… but all things considered he walked out of that carriage with a brand new power, so he hadn't wasted his time for nothing.

Just one thing ruined his newfound good mood: his prey escaped him again.

Elizabeth couldn't believe her luck when she heard the inspector asking to see her stalker's train ticket and her decision to drag him away from there. Her knees buckled and she leaned against the wall to not fall. Her heart… she never felt more scared in her life. She couldn't be mistaken, that man, for some reason, wanted her dead. But why? Was it because she was a Level Five resident? Were the orders to kill, and not to capture alive?

Elizabeth put both hands on the sink and looked at her reflection in the small mirror. When she had left New York she hadn't paid much attention to her face, but now she couldn't ignore it. Maybe the scars were covered, but she was too pale and thin; her cheekbones weren't so evident two years earlier, and those dark circles under the eyes didn't help. She gave herself a bitter smile. Trying to keep out all the bad emotions from her head and projecting good ones in the other prisoners' heads had taken a strain on her, after all. No surprise that woman felt pity for her. She was feeling pity for herself, too.

_Keep going_, she told to herself. _Keep going, you're almost home. No one will hurt you there. Dad and Grandma won't allow it._

When she went back to her seat, the woman wasn't there anymore, but in her place Elizabeth found a couple of flyers with the logo of a church and the addresses of some homeless shelters. She made them quickly disappear in a pocket: she could always use a backup plan. Elizabeth closed her eyes for a second, and she fell asleep without noticing… she chastised herself when the loudspeaker woke her up, and she discovered St. Louis was the next (and last) station. She immediately grabbed the duffel bag and tried to meddle with the other travelers. She relaxed when she didn't felt any menacing feelings coming from the people around her, and she checked the train's departure time on her ticket. _Five hours to kill, hoping not to get killed_, she darkly thought. But she had an advantage after all: she could feel him coming. And her clothes were different now. She raised the hood on her head, covering her blonde hair. She just had to be strong, only for a little more time.

She had barely touched the platform with her foot when she felt someone screaming. A ticket inspector had just found four of his colleagues dead on that train. Elizabeth widened her eyes, but she kept walking. No one was paying attention to her, it was her occasion to disappear… Then she felt the now familiar emotions of his stalker in her head, and she began running.

Sylar got out from the train when the screaming started, and he couldn't help but smirk. All that time wasted hunting down Molly Walker… when another girl had the same gift and was definitely easier to catch. Mohinder could sleep easier at night now; he had no reason to hurt his little protégé anymore.

Sylar concentrated on Isabel, picturing in his head the face of the blonde girl he wanted to kill.

_Where are you, my precious Isabel?_

A sudden image flashed in his mind. That platform, a girl with a gray and violet hoodie, jeans and a battered duffel bag on her shoulder. He turned, looking for her… what a surprise when that girl bumped into him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't…" she apologized, while the hood slipped back revealing her face. Elizabeth looked up, and froze in fear. No, it couldn't be true…

Before she could back down, Sylar grabbed her arms, blocking her.

"Isabel," Sylar said, with an evil smirk that sent shiver down Elizabeth's spine. "How _wonderful_ run into you again."


	3. Chapter 3

He was going to harm her.

It was the only thing in Elizabeth's head. The black-haired man that was holding her tightly by her arms was going to harm her. Before Elizabeth realized it, her power kicked in and her terror flooded Sylar's mind all of sudden. The killer widened his eyes, clearly not expecting that, and relented his grip on Elizabeth before falling to the ground, unconscious. Elizabeth gave the man a quick glance, and started running again. She had to get out of the train station before he got back on his feet!

Sylar never experienced anything like that in his life. One second he was feeling well, and one second later his heart was going to jump out of his chest. He felt so terrified his own body couldn't handle the shock. He felt his knees shook, and then he was on the ground, semi-unconscious, almost unable to move. Isabel gave him a quick look before running away. She had to be sure she could disappear… but that girl didn't know he could now find her anywhere. And now that he knew what she could do with her ability, he coveted her power even more.

_Run, little girl… run as long as you please. You can't hide from me._

Elizabeth arrived at the exit just in time to see the police closing every way in and out of the train station. She immediately hid behind a pillar, and heard the agents explaining to the other travelers that there had been a murder on the train just arrived from New York and that the killer could still be there. All the agents were focused on the case… no one was there for her. Elizabeth ravaged her bag looking for something else to wear. The black-haired guy knew her clothes, she had to change at least the hoodie… but the rest of the clothes in the bag weren't as warm or practical as the ones she was wearing, so she let go. Elizabeth sat in a corner on the floor, and tried to be invisible. If only she could control that projection thing better… it was a defense mechanism that kicked in when she felt threatened, but she knew she could use it to her advantage, like she did with the desk guy when she bought the tickets or with the guys in Level Five. Elizabeth just didn't understand why it tired her so much. _Well, no point in crying_, she said to herself. She had cried too many times in her life. Maybe if she charmed one of the agents she could get out and get away from the station…

Elizabeth froze. Near the agents guarding the doors, there was her stalker. And he was staring right back at her with an evil smirk.

He didn't take a genius to make Sylar realize where Elizabeth was headed. And as soon as he was able to move, his first action was to show the agents his fake badge and to tell them that he saw the killer.

"It's a girl. Blonde, thin, blue eyes. She is wearing a hoodie, violet and gray. She looks harmless but she's far from be…"

He smirked, hearing again that familiar, accelerated heartbeat. He turned slightly the head, and meet his prey's blue eyes one more. Even Isabel should know that now her chance at escaping that place were none.

Without breaking eye contact, Elizabeth got back on her feet. She didn't hear what he told the agents, but it had to be nothing good for her. Okay, fine, she said to herself. Who needs health, anyway?

She closed her eyes and concentrated harder on the agents near the black-haired guy, and she planted in them a lot of doubt, distrust and a little bit of rage. Enough to make them heat up against him and whatever he told them, but not enough to cause a physical reaction. She held on the wall for support, and she couldn't help but smile when she looked at the agents all of sudden accusing the man of lying and his face not realizing what was happening… Then she heard a scream and saw a woman point at him as the last person that saw the four train inspectors alive. Elizabeth couldn't hope for a better diversion. While the police was busy with the crowd and the now suspected murderer, Elizabeth used the little strength left to charm the youngest agent there, convincing him to let her go. She could leave for Dittmer the day after, after all. And without a killer on her trail. Elizabeth got in the first hotel she could find near the station, and once again she manipulated the employees into making them all more than happy to give her shelter without asking her for any form of identification, with the promise of not telling a soul about her, should someone come and ask. Elizabeth kept herself together till she reached the door, but when she closed it behind her she fell on her knees on the carpet. She slowly got up and barely made it to her bed before fainting from exhaustion, but in her opinion, it was worth it. And for the first time since she could remember, she closed her eyes in a place that wasn't a psychiatric hospital or Level Five. Sure her journey wasn't over yet, but it felt… good.

Sylar's patience was running thin. Isabel was so close… she didn't run that far, she still intended to take that train. Probably the day after. And instead of being with her in her room, watching her scream and cry while he cut her head open to acquire that peculiar power of hers, was blocked in a police station, trying his best to not get up from the plastic chair and kill everyone in there. They could keep him there for 24 hours without an accusation, and there was no evidence that linked him to the people he had killed. Not a big annoyance, but he was sure that Bennet was already on the plane ready to drag him back to Level 5. For a second he thought of Angela, but he smothered immediately the guilt such thought evocated.

"He looks so calm he's unnerving," whispered a detective from behind the glass. "What about him, Nora? You found something?" he asked the colleague next to him.

"Gabriel Gray, 30, born and raised in Queens. Nothing relevant till eighteen months ago, then his name keeps being associated with murders. Bryan Davis, Alejandro Herrera, Virginia Gray."

"Gray?"

"His mother," replied a male voice the two agents had ever heard before. "But I'm afraid it's just the tip of the iceberg. We're trying to frame him for other murders as well."

"I'm sorry, you are…"

"The one that's going to make sure he's not going to harm anyone ever again," replied Bennet. He didn't know where Angela found that lead, but it pointed him in the right direction. No, even better… it made him be at the right place in St. Louis right in time to act. No one at Primatech knew exactly what ability Mrs. Petrelli had, and Bennet never really cared. Now he wondered if it had something to do with seeing the future, and since she wanted that monster so much, Noah Bennet couldn't help but wonder what part he was going to play in Angela's plan.

Sylar smirked. Bennet was there. He could hear him from his side of the glass. Well, that changed things. He didn't have a reason to get up, destroy the door, kill a few people and escape, before his coming. He was more than willing to wait for his release and then go hunting down Isabel. Even a serial killer needed sleep, after all. And killing common, insignificant humans didn't give him the same thrill he got when he killed others like him. He shrugged. If he had to settle down for that…

From behind the glass, Bennet smirked as well. He could imagine what Sylar was thinking… that was also why he didn't fight that hard when Sylar burst out of the interrogation room. He knew he couldn't go far, and when Sylar felt he was losing consciousness again, like that night in Texas, by the hand of the Haitian, he realized that too.

***

It took a while before Elizabeth could find the strength to open her eyes, and when she did, she didn't recognize at first where she was. The hotel room was anonymous and unfamiliar, and Elizabeth had to take a couple of deep breaths to calm down and repeat to herself she was safe, before getting out of the bed. She felt better after a good night of dreamless sleep, though, and after a huge breakfast she felt even better. They never starved her in the hospitals or in Level Five, but she also never felt strong enough to fight against all the medical exams and the experiments. She had always blamed the sedatives, but maybe the answer was simpler than that, and her weakness was just the way she was, not something induced.

Since everyone was looking for Isabel Parker, she thought it was a good idea to get a room under her real name; it was also nice to finally hear people calling her Elizabeth, or Ms. Porter. But every second she spent there it felt like she was pushing her luck. She had to go home, immediately. Dittmer wasn't that close, and the sooner she took the train the sooner she would get back to her family. Elizabeth couldn't wait to see their faces… she was sure everyone would be happy to see her, cause the only reason she could think of for her father to not find her was her forced change of name. Same went for her grandmother. As for her mother… Elizabeth involuntarily recalled the coldness she had always felt in her when she was around. If her father and grandparents hadn't loved her as much as they did… but not even in that case her mother's behavior could be excused.

It was like she couldn't even force herself to love her, a horrible feeling for a little girl that wanted nothing but her mother's affection. Elizabeth remembered clearly how she tried everything to win her love, all to no avail… Elizabeth shook her head, trying to erase the bad thoughts from her head, and went back to the railway station. She kept her guard up during all the way back there, ready to run away if she perceived something even remotely dangerous to her. But everything was quiet: no one was there for her, especially that black-haired guy. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to smile and relax a little once she got onto the train. Just a few hours, and everything would be over.

Sylar in that moment was in a Company van, watched closely by both Bennet and the Haitian. He wondered if his little prey managed to escape the Company again, but he would've already known if they had found the girl. So she probably was on the train headed to Dittmer…

Sylar tried to find her, but his power sort of bounced back at him. The Haitian was like a rubber wall that he couldn't break… or not? Instead of using an ability at the time, he tried to summon all the powers he had stolen up to that moment like he wanted to use them all at once. He wondered if the Haitian could hold them all at bay… but seeing him struggle after a few minutes gave him the answer he was hoping for. Sylar increased his effort, and before Bennet could shoot him the Haitian was already unconscious. Bennet tried to shoot him anyway, but Sylar blocked the bullets and switched their course. They hit Bennet in the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Noah… but I'm on a different assignment now, I'm sure you understand," he sarcastically said, knocking Bennet out with the gun. The van stopped a few moments after, with the other agents coming out and opening the van's door to check on Bennet and his partner, but the only thing they saw was the barrel of Sylar's gun shooting the two bullets that hit them straight in the head, killing them instantly. Without giving the corpses a second glance, Sylar stepped out of the van and dropped the gun on the ground, after he removed the fingerprints from it. A quick check on Isabel's whereabouts let him know she was already on the train to Dittmer, and he calmly walked away from the van, headed to the train station. There were no direct trains to Dittmer before three hours, unfortunately… but even a killer deserved a break. And after escaping Bennet and the Company again, he felt like he had earned it. And then… it wasn't like Isabel could escape him now, was it? So he waited, ate something, and boarded the train at the right time. Once he arrived in Dittmer, he immediately searched for her and got flashes in his head of an old, white house, and the exact address. He smiled to himself, already savoring the moment when he would take her ability, but he decided to take things slowly. Nothing had to ruin the perfect conclusion to his hunt.

He was wondering, though, why Isabel chose to hide in that house. The name on the letterbox was Porter, and nothing in her file connected her to someone named like that. Or maybe was just coincidence… Well, it wasn't important anymore. He opened the door with his telekinesis, and walked inside of the house without making a sound. He could already feel the adrenaline rushing through his body.

And there she was, sitting on the floor with her back against one of the living room walls, surrounded by furniture covered by dusty sheets. Her forehead rested on her knees, and her arms loosely hugged her legs. Before he could make another step in her direction, she lifted her head and looked at him with a quiet, almost serene expression.

"I was waiting for you," she said. "I knew you couldn't be that far… you never are."

Elizabeth slowly got on her feet, and gave the killer, who was still watching her in silence, a weak smile.

"For twenty years I didn't think of anything else but the day I would go back to my family. It was the only thing that gave me the strength to survive. But I got to the wrong place. They're not waiting for me here anymore…"

She kept on walking until she was right in front of Sylar, that couldn't help but compare their first meeting in St. Louis with this one. It was like she had completely renounced to fight.

Elizabeth looked at him straight in the eyes. "I don't know why you want to kill me… I suppose it doesn't matter now, does it?" she said. Then her smile left the place to a more serious, pleading expression. "Just… make it quick. Please. It's all I ask."

For half a second he felt tempted to ask the reason for that sudden change, but the hunger took complete control over him again. With his telekinesis shoved her against the closest wall, and the girl didn't flinch. He almost sighed. He loved when they started screaming in fear…

Elizabeth watched Sylar raise his index finger, and she instinctively closed her eyes. Life was so ironic… all that time, all those miles, just to meet the fate she would've had if she had stayed in the bank instead of running away. And by the hand of the same man. But something was different, she wasn't the same girl that escaped Level Five anymore. That girl had a reason to live, and a revenge to try and carry out. Elizabeth lost that reason, and not even revenge was that good enough of a motive to keep breathing.

Elizabeth tried her best not to start screaming when she felt an excruciating pain on her forehead. Her blood was dripping on her face, hot and salty, she could taste it on the lips…

Suddenly her eyes snapped open. Someone was close to the house. Too close. Her soon-to-be killer had been seen by someone too curious for his or her own good. Before it was too late, Elizabeth ignored the pain and raised a trembling hand. She concentrated the harder she could on that person, to make her stop lurking and go away. The gesture didn't went unnoticed by Sylar, but the little distraction was enough to interrupt the telekinetic grasp. Without Sylar's power to support her, Elizabeth fell against him. That little projection deprived her of the little strength she had gained, and she lost consciousness before Sylar instinctively wrapped an arm against her waist to sustain her. He had felt noises coming from outside, but as soon as Isabel had raised her hand the woman behind the door hurriedly went back to her house, like she suddenly remembered she had something important to do. He looked down at the motionless woman in his arms. What kind of woman used her ability to save a stranger, but not herself? And why now she wanted to die, after she put so much effort in running away from him and everyone else in the first place? His curiosity came back, and that time it was stronger than his desire to kill the girl. Isabel would have to wait a few hours to get what she wanted. His maniacal obsession to understand things sometimes extended to people as well… and that girl looked like an enigma he simply had to solve.

He dragged her to the couch, and deposited her on the sheet. The fresh blood that poured from her wound stained her pale skin and the gray sheet, but Sylar didn't notice. He was more interested in what could see now that her shirt left part of her abdomen exposed. He tilted his head and traced with his index the surface of a large burn scar. He could also see many scars due to cuts – some thin and long, other bigger and irregular. He followed the biggest of all throughout all her abdomen, slightly raising the shirt to see it better. He gave a look to her arms as well and wasn't surprised to find them covered in scars, beneath the sleeves. She also looked like in serious need of a good meal, or more than one. He knew first-hand that the Company didn't care about the damage they could inflict or how far they could go to study an ability, but still, it didn't add up. It looked more the work of a sadist than the work of a Company doctor. He covered again her upper body and arms. Another mystery.

Elizabeth tried to move, but realize she had no strength to do it. She slowly raised a hand to touch her head that hurt like hell, and felt the fresh blood on her forehead. That was more than enough to make her remember what had just happened. What had to happen, and obviously didn't.

She slowly opened her eyes, and met Sylar's gaze. The feelings she felt coming from him were overwhelming, too strong for her in her state. Elizabeth tried to suppress a moan, and concentrated enough just to ask him the only thing that mattered to her.

"Why you didn't kill me?"

"Oh, don't think I won't do it. I just want to… satisfy my curiosity first."

"I never had much of a life. There's nothing to know about me."

"Judging from your scars, I beg to differ, Isabel."

"Elizabeth."

"What?"

"It's my name. Elizabeth Porter. Some time around my ninth birthday everyone began calling me Isabel. I… I never understood why."

That explained why she looked for refuge in that house. One mystery solved, another billion to go.

"Why do you want to kill me?"

"I covet what you have. Your ability is amazing… and I want it."

Elizabeth closed her eyes, tired by the conversation. "Good luck, then."

"Do I need it?"

"Yeah… I think so."

"I've seen what you can do."

"That mind thing… I don't control it."

"You just did."

"And now I'm completely drained."

"How does it work?"

Elizabeth clutched the couch's cushions beneath the sheet and with some effort she pulled herself up.

"Listen… My 'ability' is a mess. I never had my head for myself in my entire life. And it grows… it never stops. I never kept it under control… maybe you will."

Sylar frowned. What did she mean?

"I can tell you what to expect. What I think I can do. It won't take more than half a day, or a day at maximum. Then you can kill me, and take my power if you like. I just have one thing to do before that, though."

"And what would that be?"

"You have to take me to a place. I definitely can't go there on my own. Then I'll start talking."

"I suppose you can have your dying wish."

Elizabeth smiled, looking at the void. "Yeah, something like that."

Her attitude was disconcerting him, but she couldn't help it. The way she felt things was so different from the others that just another empath would understand. She cleaned up her face the best she could and changed her shirt, so that no one would ask about the stain of blood on the fabric. In that time, Sylar never said a word to her. Except for the brief moment when she changed her shirt, his eyes were fixed on her. Half of the time, like something he wished to devour. The other half, like a piece of art he was admiring. But it wasn't her appearance the object of such attention, and that was the only reason why she didn't freak out. The abuse she had to endure for years left her with an instinctive fear of men. She had almost preferred the beatings to the times when those monsters had sneaked in her room at night. What she felt in those men all the times, a moment before the violence started, had branded in her brain forever. Flint, Knox, the other men she had met in her journey… everyone, one way or another, thought of her that way at least once. Except one. How sick was that she felt safer in the company of the man that was going to kill her than she ever felt in years?

Sylar was a merciless killer, but he still remembered a thing or two his mother had taught him. One was to not look at a lady when she was changing clothes. Someone else would've gone in another room, he wouldn't have objected to that. But it seemed more like she didn't care. Or that she was used to not have privacy at all. He caught another glimpse of her scars, anyway, and Elizabeth's back was scarred like the abdomen— if a little more so. And that quiet, relaxed attitude of hers… the way she had proposed him that deal… Was that just her power, or simply herself?

Elizabeth made a step and almost fell on the ground, but she regained her balance at the last second. She was wearing again that smile… Like she wasn't afraid of him. She stubbornly decided to walk without assistance, but after a few minutes Elizabeth had to ask for his help. She almost apologized for that.

She stopped briefly to buy four roses from a lady at a street corner, and just then Sylar began to understand where Elizabeth was taking him. It almost explained the abandoned house and why Elizabeth wanted to die so badly, but he wanted to wait and see if his theory was correct.

When he saw the graveyard, he realized it was.

Michael Porter. Daniel Porter. Daphne Green Porter. Marion Lane Porter. Julie Porter. The first death dated back to 20 years before, followed a few months later by Daniel's. Daphne, Marion and Julie's graves, on the other hand, shared the same date of death, six months before the Level Five's breakout.

"That explains why my father never came for me," Elizabeth said with an emotionless voice, putting the first rose on his grave. "Or my grandfather. They would've never let it happen."

"How do you know?"

"This thing started when I was very little. I always felt how much they all cared for me," Elizabeth continued, leaving a rose in front of Daphne's grave. Her grandmother, judging from the date of birth. "That's also how I know that she never loved me at all," she hissed with a cold, enraged tone, looking at Marion's tomb.

"Your mother?"

"The woman that gave birth to me just because my father obliged her to. I heard a fight just a few days before she took me to the hospital. I hope my sister was luckier than me, though. She was born the year after I was institutionalized, according to the neighbor I 'convinced' to speak with me. I never met her. All this time… I never imagined I would go home to a bunch of graves."

The last rose was for her little sister, Sylar noticed. Elizabeth was still looking at her mother's grave with hate, and he couldn't help but empathize with her a little over the bad mothers they both had had. Enough to gain a surprised look from Elizabeth, that clearly wasn't expecting that.

"You too?"

Sylar shot her a death glare and grabbed her by the wrist. "Don't you dare enter my head again!"

"I don't have to!" she hurriedly explained, feeling the rage growing inside of him. "You get inside my head, I can help it! Please… " she whispered, starting to hyperventilate. "I'm telling you the truth, I swear to God!"

All of sudden, Elizabeth was scared of him. Sylar didn't understand how could she be the same girl that half an hour earlier had clearly and calmly asked him to kill her. He let her go, and Elizabeth stepped back a little, massaging her wrist.

"I honored my end of the deal. Start talking, or you'll go meet Daddy sooner than anticipated."

Elizabeth lowered her head for a second, sighing, and then she raised her eyes on him. "What do you want to know?"

_So many questions, so little time_… Sylar felt once more his hunger taking over, so dark and powerful it made Elizabeth shiver. He smirked.

"_Everything_."


	4. Chapter 4

Elizabeth had never felt in anyone a stronger curiosity and desire for knowledge — a desire so strong, it could be compared to lust. She had never felt that feeling before; it was completely new to her. She remembered not to react in any way, though. Her sore wrist wouldn't take well to being clutched again so tightly.

"I told you, I was very little when it started. Four maybe… or even sooner, I don't remember. One day, all of sudden, it was like people had become… different. I could 'see' them in my head, I could feel if they were sad or happy. It was like someone had painted the world with brighter colors, or with shades I didn't know they existed. I got lost in my little world, I'm afraid. I couldn't explain it to anyone, so everyone started to think there was something wrong with me. And then came the accident. A car crash near where I lived with my parents, with wounded and dead people. It was too much, I couldn't cope. I had a breakdown, with screams and tears and the like. After that I was diagnosed with an autistic disorder. I knew some of the doctors were lying, that they knew more than what they were saying to my parents but no one listen to a crazy five year old girl, right?"

Elizabeth stopped walking all of sudden, and indicated two men and a woman on the other side of the street.

"Talk about a messed up situation. She's in love with both. One is definitely her husband. The other is the husband's best friend. And he loves her too. More than the husband. But she will never leave him. She will put duty over feelings… and he knows that. They are all going to suffer."

"I don't care."

"You will. Give me your hand."

"What?"

"You want to know how it works? Give me your hand."

Sylar raised his hand, and Elizabeth after a little hesitation entwined her thin fingers to his. She looked straight in his eyes and told him to relax. Sylar closed his eyes, and one second later, it was like someone had put him in a soap bubble. Everything was so weird… unknown. So many different sensations that couldn't even name… Elizabeth was right to define them as colors and shades. In the last few seconds he was sure he had felt at least three different types of the same emotion.

Sylar opened his eyes. Elizabeth was watching again the woman and the men she loved, her hand still in his. He was feeling their emotions through Elizabeth. They resumed walking along the sidewalk, with Elizabeth explaining what he was feeling. She _really_ wanted him to understand the power he was going to get. Sylar couldn't help but thinking Elizabeth was too selfless for her own good. He was probably doing her a favor by killing her.

"Could you have changed their feelings?"

"I'm too weak. But even if I wasn't, I wouldn't do that. I do it only when I'm sure I won't cause damage, or when I know exactly the shades of feelings I'm messing with. Like in the real world… nothing is really that dangerous, until you have too much of it. Extremely true in case of indigestions, addictions, and emotion manipulation."

"But _how_ do you do that?"

"I just do. I can't explain… you'll see for yourself when you'll have my ability."

Only then Elizabeth realized that he was still holding her hand, and tried to free herself. He let her go immediately, as astonished as she was for not noticing it sooner. They kept on walking in complete silence.

"What's your name? I realized I have no idea," blurted Elizabeth out of the blue, after a while.

"My name's Sylar."

"I don't care how you decided to call yourself, I wanna know your _real_ name. Come on. It's not like I'm going to tell anyone, am I?"

"Why do you want to know it?"

"I don't like lies."

"You are probably the best liar in the world."

"Wrong. Another thing you should know about my power is that I can tell lies from truth; I'm rarely mistaken. And even if I'm probably the best liar in the world, like you say… I like truth better. Lies just complicate things."

Elizabeth didn't notice, but a woman from behind the window of a small café was watching her with her mouth hanging open, too surprised to believe what she was seeing. When she saw the blonde girl and the black-haired guy with her walking past her shop, Susanne left the counter in a second and run after them. She wasn't sure the girl was who she thought she was… but there was only a way to find it out.

"Elizabeth? Elizabeth Marie Porter?"

Elizabeth couldn't believe her ears. Someone had just called her with her full name. No one ever called her Marie, it was something just her father and grandparents did.

Elizabeth slowly turned. The woman had black hair and dark eyes, and she was wearing jeans and a shirt, with a green apron around her waist. She looked forty-five, fifty maybe… and she was sure to know her. More than sure, actually. Then a strong smell of cinnamon hit Elizabeth's nose, and things became clearer.

"Susanne?"

Susanne smiled broadly and hugged the girl. "Oh my God, Elizabeth! It's really you… I can't believe it! "

And neither could Elizabeth, that closed her eyes and let the joy of the woman wash over her. It had been so long since the last time she had felt something like that. Susanne let her go but kept her hands on Elizabeth's arms, beaming at her. Then Susanne gave a look at Sylar, and Elizabeth shivered a little, unsure of what could happen next.

"Oh, I'm sorry… I didn't introduce myself," Susanne said, outstretching her arm towards Sylar. "Susanne Scavo. Lizzie's aunt… sort of. I was a very good friend of her father and grandparent's. And you must be Lizzie's boyfriend, right?"

Elizabeth had to give him that… she never saw someone reacting to an unexpected situation so quickly. Sylar took Susanne's hand and smiled to her.

"I must be. Gabriel Gray. I'm pleased to meet you, Ms. Scavo."

"Oh, please… call me Susanne! And come on, let's go back to the café, we have so many things to talk about! And I'm not taking no as an answer."

"We'll be pleased, right Elizabeth?"

"Sure, _Gabriel_," replied Elizabeth, trying to sound calm. He was clearly annoyed by the little inconvenience represented by Susanne, but she wasn't a menace. He would let her be. Now the problem was one and one only: how to not make Susanne doubt they were a couple while she tried to look normal. The latter thing was easy because she could mirror Susanne's emotions and behavior, but the former… Luckily for her, Sylar just wanted to get rid of that woman as fast as he could, so he stopped being the killer for a second and let Gabriel resurface once again. A change that didn't go unnoticed by Elizabeth, but she simply decided not to say or do anything. Maybe she was an enigma to him, but he was as much as complicated to her eyes.

Susanne couldn't stop talking for a second, she was too happy to see her, but after the lie on how and when she and Gabriel had met, the conversation took a dark, unpleasant turn when Susanne discovered how long her acquired niece had been institutionalized and when she was finally able to get out of the hospital.

"So you… you didn't know. No one ever thought to tell you about your parents?"

"Maybe they considered me too fragile to bear it," lied Elizabeth. She couldn't tell the truth to Susanne, like she wouldn't share her painful past with anyone else. So she tampered with her curiosity just a little, to make her stop asking question to her and start with Gabriel. The homicidal glare he shot her when he realized why the woman was now so interested in him would've given the chills to anyone, but Elizabeth just bit her lip not to smile. And what came out from all those questions was enough to make Susanne laugh to tears.

"I can't believe it! A _watchmaker_… What's with you guys and Porter women, anyway?"

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand."

"My family, Gabriel… we're all watchmakers. My grandfather and my dad were, at least," explained Elizabeth, exchanging a look with Susanne. "The shop was at the end of this street."

"It's still there, honey. Your Grandma closed it after their deaths, but I heard that Julie was going to reopen it… gifted girl, she was. It's horrible you two never got a chance to meet each other. She couldn't live without my cinnamon rolls… like someone here. And your grandfather."

Elizabeth blushed, and Susanne took the chance to taunt her a little in front of her 'boyfriend' about how much she used to like everything with cinnamon in it when she was little.

"Listen, before I met you two I just took out of the oven a fresh batch of those rolls. _Someone_ here is interested? They're still in the kitchen."

"I hate you," whispered Elizabeth, but got up and went to take them from the kitchen when Susanne suggested to the couple to eat them some now and then to take away the rest. Susanne watched the girl disappearing behind the kitchen door, and then her smile dropped.

"Seriously, Gabriel. How bad is it? I know her, she would never explicitly say she's unhappy or hurt…"

"Elizabeth has a _very_ peculiar way of dealing with life and pain," he replied, thinking again of her calm when she had asked him to die, or when she had talked to him about her family and ability.

"She never put herself first when she was little. Once she broke her wrist when she was five and she didn't tell anyone cause she didn't want _us_ to worry. She keeps doing it, right?"

"It's her nature."

"She needs someone to protect her. Whatever I can do to help, let me know. Oh, by the way…" she said, taking out of her apron an old bunch of keys and pushing it towards Gabriel. "I don't know how much you're going to stay here, but I'm sure she would like to take a look at her grandfather's shop, or even stay there. Daphne never left anyone but family inside, after Michael and Daniel's deaths. Not that I would've acted differently, that place is filled with too many memories to be sold and given to someone else."

"I couldn't put it better myself," said Elizabeth, back from the kitchen with a tray filled with cinnamon rolls. Susanne almost jumped in surprise, and brought a hand to her chest.

"Oh God! I see you never lost your habit of sneaking up on people!"

"I suppose. Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," said Elizabeth sitting again at their table and watching the keys. She had actually wondered what happened to her grandfather's shop, but she wasn't sure it was a good idea to go there and see the place where she had been so happy as a child, and where her grandfather – according to the neighbor's tale – was killed during a robbery. But since she had decided that that was her last day of life, maybe she could convince her soon-to-be executioner to take a detour on the way back to the house.

"I'd like to gave a look to the old shop, Gabriel… if it's not a problem."

"I don't see why not. We'll go now."

Elizabeth nodded and got up from the chair, followed immediately by Susanne and Sylar. Susanne hugged the girl once more, telling her to not disappear again, and waved the couple goodbye. Sylar put one arm on Elizabeth's shoulders, like a good boyfriend would, to keep the cover until Susanne could see them. One second later he grabbed her shoulder with force and hissed to her ear to not try something like that ever again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't plan this. I couldn't ignore her!"

"Maybe you don't understand how bad things could get for you if you make me angry, Elizabeth. I _never_ promised you a painless death."

"And you definitely don't understand what it's like to hear someone call you with your real name for the first time in _sixteen years_," Elizabeth hissed with a tone that made Sylar snicker.

"Little Elizabeth is feeling combative now?" he said, pushing her away. "Good. I was feeling bored. This deal makes things too damn easy."

Elizabeth tried not to look affected by his words. She had heard them too many times by the guards and the male nurses that sneaked in her room at night. Her attempts at defending herself were highly amusing, according to them… but one girl against three or more men never had a chance to win, not in that place. The memory of the first time it had happened, of the leather straps that trapped her wrists and the cloth stuffed in her mouth to suffocate her screams, of the physical and psychological pain those men had inflicted her with their abuse, hit Elizabeth full force. All of sudden she wasn't in the middle of a street in Dittmer anymore, she was once again tied up to that bed, helpless and in pain…

A strong slap sent her against a wooden table, and Elizabeth finally woke up. She could feel tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, but she didn't remember when she had started to cry. And where was she? She didn't remember going there either.

"At last. What the hell happened to you?"

Elizabeth looked at Sylar. He looked angry, but inside he was as confused as she was.

"I-I don't know. I... Where are we?"

"In the shop. You started screaming and crying in the middle of the street. I had to drag you by force here. Thank God I had those keys."

"Screaming? Crying? I… I don't remember."

She had just had a very vivid hallucination… hadn't she? Elizabeth dried her eyes and sighed. She thought it was fault of the meds the Company doctors kept on giving her… what the hell was that? It was too real to be a dream, it was more like she was reliving a memory…

A glance to Sylar, and she realized she had just expressed her thoughts aloud.

"Memories? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Nothing!" Elizabeth immediately replied. Anger was trading places with confusion, and deep inside of him he was sure she was lying to him. He took a step closer, and Elizabeth clutched the rim of the table, unable to get away from that situation. If she didn't feel that weak she would try and project her feelings into his mind, but her head was spinning and she couldn't concentrate.

Sylar was going to say something, but his attention was caught by one of her scars, emerging from the bottom of her shirt. He recalled his nights spent studying medical books in order to find the best way to extract the brain from his victims, and to satisfy his burning hunger for knowledge. Scars like hers screamed abuse, and blackouts or flashbacks weren't so uncommon for people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders. And maybe he could turn that to his advantage to get what he wanted from her.

"Don't lie to me," he said, grazing lightly the scar on her stomach with his fingertips. Elizabeth clutched the table behind her with even more force. Her fingers were aching from the effort and the wooden splinters that pierced her skin, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of being touched by him in that way. She thanked God it lasted just an instant, but to her it felt like she was being burned all over again. Before she could stop them, big tears came out from her eyes.

"_Please_. This wasn't included in our deal," she whispered.

"Now it is."

Elizabeth raised her eyes to look at him. "Please…"

"Who did that?"

Elizabeth pressed her lips firmly together, refusing to talk. Maybe if she angered him enough he would kill her, and everything would be over… She slightly moved, and the piece of paper with all the names of the people that had hurt her fell from her jeans pocket to the floor. The gentle noise was enough to make Elizabeth freeze.

Without stopping to look at her, Sylar kneeled and took the folded paper from the ground and opened it. In neat italics, he could read a short list of names, mostly doctors and nurses, all men. One of them, Hank Davies, was sort of familiar… and then he remembered when he first saw his name. On his lab coat, after killing him in the Primatech facility in Odessa, eighteen months earlier.

"Sounds like we have some acquaintances in common. Who are the rest of them?"

All of sudden, Elizabeth stopped shaking. The fear… it was gone. As it was gone the pain in her hands. She couldn't feel a thing. Silence and numbness traded places with all the pain, fear and confusion inside of her. She could still feel them, but they couldn't reach her anymore. It was like being anesthetized, yet wide awake…

Elizabeth smiled. She knew she should've been worried by that unnatural calm she was feeling, of that weird sensation in her chest, but for the first time in her life the burden she carried on her shoulders was gone. Surely it wasn't gone forever, but in that moment she was feeling free like never before in her life. Like she could say or do whatever she pleased, without consequences. Except maybe one, the one she was still hoping for.

Elizabeth laughed, and Sylar couldn't believe his own eyes. Was that the same girl she was begging and crying in front of him just a second earlier?

"You want to know about my list and these scars? Fine. I'll tell you," she said, raising one of her sleeves. "See this one? Fire. They burned me with an iron as punishment for trying to get out of my cell… pardon, room. And this one? Scalpel. Quite a favorite, I have to say… reserved only for minor punishments. The big one on my side? Beaten with a belt. But I think I have pretty much every scar you can get. See, Gabriel… the only thing they were sure is that my ability manifested when I was in pain. It happened the day of the car accident, I discovered. And so they gave me pain. Every day. For eighteen years. They even changed my name to keep experimenting on me without supervision, or my parent's consent. But it wasn't enough… not for a few of them, at least. They theorized that just a trauma as bad as the one that made me end up there could trigger it again… so they waited until I was older, before… well, I think you can imagine the rest. That didn't leave me scars. Not of the kind I can show, anyway. I've been burned, cut, drugged, abused, just in the name of what they called science. And you should have heard how everyone referred to them… they were all considered good men, caring husbands, loving fathers. _But they were just soulless monsters!_"

The unknown sensation in her chest just grew stronger. It felt good. Powerful. Too much powerful to be restrained, she realized, but the only thing she could do was to watch Sylar bring a hand to his neck, like he was choking. Before Elizabeth could do anything, her too long-repressed rage made Sylar fall to the ground, unconscious. But when Elizabeth felt nothing coming from him, she realized with a shiver she had killed him, like she had killed those people in the psychiatric hospital. She immediately kneeled next to him, but his heart wasn't beating anymore, and she didn't know how to try and revive him.

Help. She needed help.

Elizabeth ran outside the shop and went towards Susanne's café, but all of sudden two men came out of nowhere, blocking her way. Elizabeth for a second considered the idea of asking them for help, but then she felt the presence of someone she knew very well in the surroundings, Horn-rimmed Glasses himself. And if he was there, they had to be Company agents as well…

Something stung her in the shoulder, and half a second later an electric jolt paralyzed her and made her lose consciousness. The two agents plus the one that used the taser on Elizabeth took her and dragged the girl to a van that was waiting nearby, with Noah Bennet inside.

"Good, One down, one to go."

"Sir, with all due respect… she couldn't know anything. Or be able to tell us anything."

"We'll worry about her psychic condition later. Right now, she's the only lead we have on Sylar, they've been seen together."

"Are you sure he will come looking for her?"

"When was last time we saw both Sylar and Isabel?"

"The day of the bank robbery."

"Almost two days ago. And she's still alive, God only knows why. Isabel is of some kind of value for him, and we're going to take advantage of this to bring both of them back to Level Five."

***

Back in the shop, Sylar snapped his eyes open and came back to life with a sharp intake of breath. He immediately sat on the wooden floor and looked for Elizabeth, but the girl was gone. She probably thought she had killed him…

What he had just felt inside of him was nothing like the fear she had projected on him at the railway station. That anger was strong, suffocating – quite literally – and if it managed to kill him that easily, the ones responsible to provoking it in the first place wouldn't certainly escape that fate, too. Sylar didn't know what had changed in Elizabeth for the girl to be able to reach all that repressed rage, but he had an idea of what she could do with it now that she had found all that strength. He looked at the piece of paper in his hand, and started looking in his mind for all the men on her list. Most of them had to be dead, since she couldn't find them, but a couple of doctors, the ones living near Dittmer, were still alive. Elizabeth had to be with one of them, or with both. And she couldn't blame the girl for wanting to kill her torturers… but a strange feeling in his gut was telling him to go after her, to stop her.

Sylar angrily pushed that thought away. Elizabeth was just a distraction from his usual hunting ways… a cute pet even, but nothing more. He put the piece of paper in his pocket, and walked out of the shop, disappearing in the darkness. He wasn't in a hurry to get to Dr. Lessing, one of the surviving doctors on Elizabeth's list that lived in the surroundings. The way she had written down that name was enough of an indication of all the repressed hate she felt towards him, but for Sylar it wasn't a problem. Elizabeth could have her revenge, nothing wrong with that.

But after that he would have _her_.

And her ability too.


	5. Chapter 5

Elizabeth's eyes snapped open and she gasped in surprise when one of her kidnappers threw a bucket of water at her. She tried to move, but her hands were handcuffed to the back of the metal chair. Elizabeth took a look around, but she had no idea of who those men where or where she was. The only presence she had recognized, Horn-rimmed Glasses, wasn't in that room. But he was near, she could still sense him…

A slap on her face brought her back to reality.

"One more time, Isabel. Where is Sylar?"

"Go to hell," hissed Elizabeth. She faced a serial killer and survived to tell the tale. She could handle three Company agents. At least she hoped so.

"See, Izzie… I don't really care about who or what you are. The only thing I know is that the man that killed many friends of mine is in town and you've been seen with him. So why don't you just tell me where I can find him, and you spare yourself the pain? 'Cause… he's not the one expendable, here. You are."

Elizabeth fought the desire to laugh at their faces. Those menaces could scare someone that wanted to keep living… someone with a death wish, not so much.

"You're never gonna find Sylar. I killed him."

The agent chuckled in disbelief. "Really? Let's hear it, then. I'm sure it's an interesting story."

"I had a rage outburst. Last time something like that happened… I killed many people. Why don't you just ask your boss? He took me to Level Five."

"I already know about that. And you know what else I know about you? That people with your ability cannot be trusted. You can use any emotion to your advantage and play with mine… we can't have that now, can we?"

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Sure, sure," he replied, turning his back to her to take something from a metal case. Horn-Rimmed Glasses was still there, watching the scene. His determination was growing together with his impatience. Like his men, he didn't believe she was telling the truth… and he wanted Sylar, wanted to kill him with his hands. It wasn't simple rage, or a duty to fulfill… it was revenge, pure and simple. He didn't care of what he had to do in order to get that information. The agent that had talked to her turned to face Elizabeth with a syringe in her right hand.

"Sir?"

"She's lying. Inject her, and start the interrogation."

Horn-rimmed Glasses was now behind her. Elizabeth's transfer to Level Five flashed in front of the girl's eyes. The sedative hadn't been strong enough, and she managed to run away as soon as they had arrived to Level Five. She was immediately taken back into custody, but before she was injected again with a stronger dose she had kicked and screamed and bit that man with all her remaining strength. Elizabeth heard him walk around her until he was right in front of her. He gave her one of his false polite smiles, and Elizabeth replied with a death glare.

"This is your last chance to tell us. Where is Sylar, Isabel?"

Elizabeth kept looking at him with a defying look in her eyes, and Bennet took the syringe from the other agent's hand.

"As you wish," he said, before stabbing Elizabeth in the arm with the needle. Elizabeth never expected for that drug to act so quickly… in less than a minute, her head felt heavier and she found difficult to keep her eyes open. She was still aware of where she was and what the men wanted from her, though. If they were so sure she was lying, maybe repeating her lie over and over would push them to end her life… Everyone in her life was already dead, after all, even Sylar… no, Gabriel, she would never call him with his other name. It was a lie, like the name they insisted on using with her, and Elizabeth hated lies as much as they loved living in them.

After a while, being conscious became too difficult for Elizabeth. She fought the growing numbness in her limbs as hard as she could, but she just wanted to sleep… she couldn't tell a thing if she was asleep, right?

Darkness engulfed her, and for a second Elizabeth felt safe.

Then the nightmare began.

***

Doctor Evan Lessing firmly believed that the end justified the means. His fast career was proof of that. Whoever was an obstacle to his work, he had it removed. Whoever could bring him an advantage, he squeezed it as hard as he could, without caring of the damages he could inflict. And he did all of this without cracking once his disguise of devoted husband and good doctor. He thought it was a gift from above, this chance to study one of those special subjects whose existence had been just theorized by an Indian geneticist, a little girl born to the woman he had been in love with since childhood, who just wanted to get rid of her. So he falsified the diagnosis, convinced everyone Elizabeth had an autistic disorder, and began playing with his new toy. He was the one that gave her all those scars, and when Elizabeth became Isabel and was transferred in another hospital, he followed the little girl to continue his experiments on her…

Disgusted, Sylar removed his hand from the older man's throat and kept holding him against the wall with his telekinesis. Bridget, Bridget… what an useful gift he had taken from that girl that Angela had fed him like a snack. With a single touch, and a little concentration, he saw the reasons why Elizabeth wanted to kill that man. And he couldn't blame her. Any Company doctor that had tried to experiment on him ended up dead, and he only endured a little part of what Elizabeth had experienced throughout the years.

"P-Please… " the man whimpered. "Please, don't kill me…"

Sylar chuckled. "We'll see. Elizabeth Porter… do you remember this name?"

"I never heard it in my life, I swear!"

Sylar augmented his telekinetic grip on the doctor's throat.

"It's the girl you mentally and physically abused with your other colleagues just because of her ability. Funny you don't remember her… cause she remembers _you_. I thought I would find her here… turns out I was mistaken. My bad," he said, releasing the pressure on the neck. The doctor took a deep breath, but he didn't have time to try and escape Sylar, because he blocked him again with his ability and pushed him against another wall.

"I've seen what you've done to her. What you made others do to her. People like you make me sick to the bone… kinda ironic, coming from me," he added with an amused smile.

Elizabeth had the skills required to kill someone. The patients in the psychiatric hospital and Sylar himself were proof of how lethal her power could be. But both the killings had been accidents dictated by a strong emotional stress, like the rage outburst that had killed him earlier. Cold-blood killing… Elizabeth didn't have it in her, she was afraid of her own shadow. But he could do it. He was the real killer, not her.

This time no one interrupted him while he was cutting the doctor's head open, and after he watched his dead body fall on the floor like a ragdoll, he checked the other name on the list, Doctor Niven. He saw him alive and well walking down the corridor of the local hospital. He had been so sure of Elizabeth's actions he didn't even bother to check on her. She had been so enraged to kill a man… if she wasn't with one of the two doctors, where was she?

He pictured Elizabeth in his mind, and what he saw made him so angry he regretted to have already killed Dr. Lessing. Elizabeth's face was bruised, her lower lip was broken. She looked heavily drugged. Bennet and other Company agents were interrogating her… they had to be convinced she could lead them to him, but Elizabeth didn't know he was still alive. She couldn't tell something she ignored, and her truth would probably sound like a lie to them, especially to Bennet.

He clenched his fists. He shouldn't have been affected by what he had just seen, Elizabeth was just a prey he wanted to kill in order to collect her ability. Breaking her that way was a favor they were doing to him, it would make things easier… she wouldn't even suffer much. So why was he feeling an incredible desire to break every bone in those agents' bodies just because they dared touch her? Was it because he considered her something that belonged only to him? Because of what she had told him about her past? Or was there something else?

For the first time since long Sylar couldn't find a way to rationalize his action. There wasn't logic or reason behind his desire to save that girl. Elizabeth was more than a liability than an asset in her condition, and yet he was headed to the abandoned warehouse where Elizabeth was being held, ready to unleash hell on her captors for what they had done to her.

* * *

Elizabeth was covered in cold sweat, and breathing was becoming harder and harder. Her body was giving up to the drugs they gave her… it was probably just a matter of time until it would give up completely, thought Elizabeth, while repeating for the umpteenth time to the agents that Sylar was dead and that she had killed him with her ability. It was incredible how her mind wasn't affected by the mix of Penthotal and Phenobarbital they injected her with. She couldn't tell how much time had passed or where she was, but she could still think clearly. Something even Horn-rimmed Glasses hadn't foresee, and he wasn't happy about it, at all. He hated when things didn't go according to plan…

"She's not responding. Give her another shot."

"Another shot? Sir… she's close to an overdose, are you sure…?"

"Like you said," Bennet replied to the agent, "She's expendable. Capturing Sylar is too important. Inject her."

The agent did as Bennet ordered, but the only effect the Phenobarbital shot had on Elizabeth was to worsen her physical condition. Elizabeth couldn't keep her eyes open anymore, she felt like her body didn't belong to her anymore… was that death? Or was her punishment for renouncing to live? Elizabeth just knew she was scared and feeling sicker by the second… death or a sudden change of mind in Bennet's head, she didn't care. She just wanted it to be over…

Then her arms weren't tied up to the chair anymore, and someone was touching her face. Elizabeth made an effort to open her eyes, but everything was blurry… her senses were so dampened they were completely useless, and her head was going to explode… everyone was suddenly scared to death, and all theirs feelings where in her head, stronger than ever. Elizabeth tried to speak, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a barely hearable moan. Again, she felt one of those hands on her face for a second… then something else… a face. A male cheek, his stubble slightly brushing against her skin.

"Keep your eyes closed," a male voice whispered to her ear. "It will be over in a second."

Elizabeth didn't understand what was the meaning of that phrase, then her mind was crossed by a flash of pain and fear, so strong and yet so brief, like a lightning in the night sky. Had someone screamed? Elizabeth couldn't tell anymore, that little clarity she had managed to keep in her head, was fading. Her mind was giving up as well as her body… she was thankful of that. It was going to be over, one way or another. She was almost sorry for her savior, he arrived too late for her.

* * *

When Sylar stepped inside the warehouse, he wasn't sure of what to do to take Elizabeth away from the Company agents. He knew that everyone would die, of course… but he didn't know yet of how long it could take, or how they would die. But if Elizabeth's picture in his head was any indication, they'd better prepare to a slow and painful agony.

Bennet wasn't there anymore, even if Sylar knew he had been there up to a few moments before. Shame. He would have to settle for the other three agents. With a flicker of his fingers he pushed them against the walls of the room where they were interrogating Elizabeth, and he stopped a few seconds to check on her.

Elizabeth couldn't even keep her head up, she was too drugged. Under his fingers Sylar felt her skin was wet with perspiration and tears; he could also hear her heartbeat slowing down.

"Is this what they teach at the Company now? Three men against a helpless girl… And I thought I was the monster, here."

Sylar reached the handcuffs with one hand and opened them with his telekinesis. Elizabeth moaned, and Sylar went closer to her, to whisper in her ear to keep her eyes closed… everything would be over very soon, and she didn't need to see what was about to happen.

He released the agents, and before they could make a move their blood was on the walls and all over him. He didn't feel pleasure in taking them down, or any other feeling he always felt when he killed. That was retaliation. Revenge, pure and simple…

Another moan coming from Elizabeth made him turn and go tending to the girl. Her hair, face and clothes were stained in blood, but she probably didn't even notice. Sylar took Elizabeth in his arms, and before Bennet would appear again, he left with her. Elizabeth needed to rest, and the first place that came to his mind was her grandfather's shop. At that hour, most of the other shops were closed; no one would be around. And he saw a stair, in the back of that place; probably there was an apartment upstairs. If her grandmother had kept that place like she had kept her late husband's shop, it was definitely a better place than the other house.

* * *

Bennet watched the blood that stained the walls of the warehouse and the bodies of the agents on the floor. The cut of the forehead… Sylar's signature. But there was more than that. It wasn't the cause of their deaths… just one of the wounds inflicted on they bodies. Sylar never let any emotion rule him… but that was the work of someone ruled by wrath. He was right then, Isabel was a liar, and Sylar was tied to her somehow. He was almost going to call Angela back and tell her he didn't have time to go look for a missing girl, just because one of her well-connected friends wanted him to. But she had insisted he went to talk with a woman named Suzanne Scavo because she had information about the missing girl, and that was probably the reason why he hadn't been there with the other agents when Sylar showed up. He didn't find Suzanne, to top the situation, and no one wanted to tell a stranger where she lived. Perfect.

He was sorry for Angela, but after this massacre, his first assignment had priority. Finding Elizabeth Porter could wait. Isabel and Sylar were too dangerous together. They had to be stopped, by any means necessary.

* * *

Elizabeth was getting worse. After Sylar had taken her to her grandparents' house, he tried to wake her up but the girl didn't respond. With a wet cloth he cleaned up her face from the dried blood of the dead agents, and tried to figure out what to do next. He had no idea of what they had given her, but it didn't look like something she could just get over with a good night of sleep. Her breathing was slowing down; her chest was barely raising now. Elizabeth needed help, but they couldn't step in the local hospital and ask for it, not with Bennet on their trail…

Sylar took again Elizabeth in his arms, trying once again not to think how awfully frail she looked now. Elizabeth thought of herself as a weak creature and for certain aspects she was… but she also endured twenty years of hell and managed to escape a maximum security facility, all of this while retaining her mental sanity. It took someone with an extraordinary inner strength to do that.

He realized in that moment he didn't care for her power anymore. Like Elizabeth said earlier, it was more trouble than it was worth. When he discovered his ability he had a second chance at life; that girl deserved as much, but to have it she had to survive that night. And he knew the perfect person for the job.

* * *

Doctor Isaac Niven was, according to everyone, a man on a mission. He genuinely cared for his patients, and did whatever he could to help them. The true personification of the doctor everyone wanted to meet at least once in the life. But what no one knew was that his devotion to the patients was dictated by guilt— a guilt so strong it made him leave a barely-started career in Psychiatry for General Medicine. Oh, his colleague and former mentor, Evan Lessing, tried to make him change his mind… but Isaac wasn't like him. He couldn't forget. So, when he got in his office that night and saw a familiar blonde girl lying unconscious on the couch, he thought in terror that his past had finally caught up with him. She looked too much alike to that girl he could've helped instead of being just a silent witness during Lessing's experiments.

Before he could go to her, his body was shoved against the wall by an unknown force and a man appeared out of nowhere was holding him by the throat, with a menacing look in his eyes.

"My friend here needs your services, Doctor. Don't do anything stupid and you'll walk away unharmed. Relatively. Try to fool me, and it will be the last thing you'll do. Do you understand me?"

The doctor nodded. He had no doubt the man in front of him could keep his word, and that without considering he had just been pushed against a wall with telekinesis. Sylar let the man go, and observed Niven while he hurried to check Elizabeth's vitals and blood pressure.

"Slow breathing… bradycardic," he said, mostly to himself, while he put the stethoscope down to go check her eyes. "Involuntary eye movement. What drug has she taken?" he hurriedly asked Sylar, while getting back on his feet and almost rushing to the door. Sylar blocked him.

"Where are you going, doc?"

"She needs oxygen, a tox screen and to be hooked up to an IV, stat! I can't do it in here, and we don't have time to waste!"

"No one has to know," Sylar told him, and he let the doctor go. "Remember that."

Niven looked Sylar for a second, then he rushed out of his office, looking for a nurse he could trust. Luckily for him, Linda – good coworker and good friend – didn't finish her shift yet. He found her at the nurse station, sorting the charts, and he took her by the arm, almost dragging her away.

"Isaac, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Linda I need your help. I need people who can be trusted… people that can keep their mouths shut. I need to run some blood tests, but the patient's name doesn't have to result on them."

"I don't understand. Are you in trouble?"

"I'll explain everything to you, I promise. But now she needs help, immediately. Do we have a bed? A single room maybe?"

"For a few hours, perhaps…"

"Good, I'll make sure I have everything I need there. The patient presents overdose symptoms, I might need to intubate her. I can't say more without a tox screen."

"I'll go take the blood for the exams, then."

"I'll do it."

"Stop wasting time. You need to know what drug she's taken otherwise you can't give her the right therapy. Where is she?"

"My office."

"…Ah. Good. Any idea of what I should tell the guy in the lab once I get there?"

"Tell them it's for one of McCallister's daughters. That'll do."

Linda nodded, and moved to go to the supply closet to get what she needed. She stopped after a few steps.

"Who's that girl?"

"Someone I'm indebted to. Hurry. Please."

Linda watched the doctor hurry down the corridor, and she decided to do as he told her. In the years spent working with him, Linda had never doubted him once. And if he decided to act that way he had to have very good reasons…. But she didn't understand his last statement. Why was he indebted to that sick girl?

There was just a way to get the answer.

* * *

When Sylar saw the nurse in the late forties that entered the office, he immediately thought that the doctor had been stupid enough to talk.

"Please. I need to take her blood."

"I told Niven not to tell anyone."

"He's prepping a room for your friend, but he really needs to see her tox screen before acting. And now let me do my job."

Linda couldn't know she was risking her like in that moment, but Sylar decided to let the woman live and draw blood from Elizabeth's scarred arm. He didn't miss the surprised look when she saw the scars; Niven must have omitted the nature of her relationship with Elizabeth… it didn't surprise him. His new life was built on a lie he kept telling himself to sleep at night. Admitting to have been among the doctors that had tortured a traumatized girl for years surely would make him lose the respect of the woman in front of him.

Linda would've loved to ask some questions, but that man scared the hell out of her with his simple presence. Better for her to do her job and leave Isaac to deal with them… but she couldn't help wondering who caused that girl all those scars. That man, maybe? Someone else?

In that moment, the girl opened slightly her eyes and looked at her. Linda gave her a reassuring smile.

"Hello," she said. "Don't worry, sweetheart, we're going to take care of you. Can you tell me your name?"

Elizabeth tried to speak, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a blurred sound, and then she lost consciousness again.

"Her name's Elizabeth," said Sylar.

"Does she have a surname, too?"

"No, she doesn't, unless Niven says so… and I really think he won't."

Linda didn't miss the sarcasm in his voice, and that just increased her curiosity about the sick girl in front of her. Once she finished taking her blood, the doctor came back saying the room was ready.

"If anyone asks, McCallister's daughter tried to kill herself. He's one of the wealthiest men in town, it's in everyone's best interests to keep the thing under the radar."

"Good," said Linda. "So I don't have to make up a story to get the exam done. I'll give you the results as soon as they're ready," she added, going out of the room.

Taking Elizabeth to her room wasn't exactly an easy task, but the story Niven made up, Sylar discovered, was good enough to stop people asking questions. Whoever that guy was, he sure was rich enough to ensure his 'daughter' to be treated without resulting in the hospital database.

"Interesting story," Sylar commented once the door was closed behind him. Niven had already hooked Elizabeth to oxygen, and he was listening to her heartbeat.

"McCallister is running for the Congress, but he has a very messed-up family. Depression, neurosis, drugs… Not the first time we have to treat one of them in secret," he explained, filling a syringe with adrenaline. "People hear the name, and stop asking questions."

"If you say so," he said Sylar, sitting by Elizabeth's bed. He watched the doctor injecting Elizabeth with adrenaline and then inserting an IV line in her hand.

"This should help her a little; we'll do more after the tox screen. Did she regain consciousness?"

"For a few seconds."

"If she does again, don't let her lose consciousness… Elizabeth? Elizabeth, can you hear me?" he suddenly said, touching her shoulder. Sylar saw Elizabeth's eyes slightly opening again as well, but he knew better than touching that girl when she wasn't in control of her emotions. A couple of seconds later, the doctor fell on the ground, unable to breath; Sylar imagined he looked like him when Elizabeth killed him in the watch store. Was that reaction connected only to rage? He couldn't help but wonder. He watched the man gasping for air on the floor, then he rose from the chair and bent over Elizabeth, touching her arm to get her attention.

"You've every right to do that, Elizabeth, but we need the doctor's help now. Let go."

Elizabeth sighed and closed her eyes; in that moment Sylar heard Niven took a sharp intake of breath.

"Good girl," he told Elizabeth, with a hint of an amused smile on his face. Then a wave of confusion mixed with fear filled his head, and his smile vanished, replaced by a surprised expression. That gentle presence in his head couldn't be the work of someone so heavily drugged…

"You didn't lose control."

It was more of an affirmation than a question, but the change of feelings in his head – confidence instead of confusion, and she was relaxing now that she didn't see the doctor anymore – felt like she was answering 'Of course not' to him. So the mind was clear, but the rest of her body was under the influence of the drug. Like she was trapped inside her own body, or something like that.

"Hope it was enough of a warning for you, Doctor," he commented while Niven got back on his feet. "Don't make the lady angry. Unless you have a death wish, obviously."

Niven tried to talk, but he was interrupted by Linda, running into the room with the exam results. Now that he knew which drugs were used on Elizabeth, the doctor started treating her accordingly to that. The goal, he explained to Sylar, was to improve her condition before moving her again, to the hemodialysis facility inside the hospital.

"There's no specific antidote for barbiturate poisoning; the only way to cure Elizabeth is to remove the drug from her blood."

"Fine. Do it. But she stays here."

"How am I supposed to take the machineries here? It's not something you can move without an authorization. She has to go down there. Linda is already looking for a bed."

"Is this your way of relieving your conscience, Doctor?"

"I don't know how much you know about what happened to Elizabeth, but… I left before she was moved to the other hospital. I never laid a finger on her… but I also never tried to stop Lessing and the others. Now I can set things right."

"Don't tell me. Tell her. Unless you're scared she will see you're lying and kill you. This time I don't think I'll stop her," he said, glancing briefly at Elizabeth.

"I've seen the cut on her forehead. A nurse found Lessing dead in his office a couple of hours ago, with a cut like that on his head. His was deep enough to cut through the bone and reach the brain, though."

"I'm sorry for your loss. Should I offer my condolences?"

"No one will miss that son of a bitch, including me. Answer me."

"Break your promise, Doc, and you'll get your answer."

At that point, Niven was convinced the man in front of him was gifted like Elizabeth. Telekinesis, maybe something similar, but he had a power. And he knew how to use it to harm people. Even Elizabeth could harm people with her ability – she harmed him, after all – but still he didn't think she could really kill someone. As someone that had experienced so much pain in her life, Isaac couldn't imagine she could willingly inflict the same pain to others. But on the other hand, Elizabeth could be more than willing to make all the people responsible pay for stealing her life. When he medicated the cuts on Elizabeth's face he couldn't help but wonder… if his theory was correct and that man killed Lessing, Isaac didn't understand why he would've tried to do the same to Elizabeth. Sure, he wasn't exactly worried sick for her wellbeing, but he cared enough to threaten a doctor in order to save her life.

He checked again Elizabeth's vitals; the adrenaline in her blood was fighting the drug, her breath and heartbeat were both stronger and steadier, but they couldn't wait any longer. Elizabeth needed to be hooked up to an hemodialysis machine, and he couldn't understand why Linda wasn't already back there with some news.

The problem, as she told them both once she came back, was represented by the doctor in charge of the ward.

"Doctor Ellison knows the McCallister family, and he wanted to know which daughter we were treating and why he wasn't the one treating her since McCallister trusts him… I didn't know what to say! We can't lie to him, a look to her face and he will know the truth."

"Unless we demonstrate we had a good reason for lying."

The reply came from Sylar, still watching Elizabeth sleeping from the bottom of her bed.

"And why would I lie to a colleague to admit a patient to his ward?"

Sylar smirked.

"Just do what I say, both of you. I have an idea."


	6. Chapter 6

"Linda! What are you doing here again?"

Linda sighed, and after glancing at the ward doors and the people waiting for her behind them, she prepared to face Doctor Ellison again. His appearance wasn't menacing at all; his character was. Ellison was a guy about Niven's age, tall, skinny, wearing glasses, and always nervous. Dealing with him was never pleasant, but this time she was ready to do it.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. Doctor Niven's patient need to be treated immediately. You said you have a place available…"

"Oh, you mean the patient everyone here believes to be one of '_them'_. Nice try. But until you tell me the truth, you're getting nowhere. Who the hell is she?"

"Doctor, if I were at liberty to say you think I wouldn't already tell you?"

"Who is she, Linda? I don't want _trouble_, here. Do you think I don't know about Niven's pal Lessing? He was suspected of experimenting treatments on psychiatric patients, for God's sake!"

"Doctor, please. It's nothing like that! How can you even think he could be capable of something so horrible?"

"Then why Doctor Niven is not here speaking to me in your place?"

"Doctor Niven is busy tending to my patient right now," said a man Ellison had never seen there before. He instinctively shivered. The way he was looking at him was intimidating, to say the least.

"I-I'm sorry, who are you?"

I'm Doctor Hank Davies," said Sylar, borrowing the name of the doctor he killed in Odessa." What I want to know is why my patient is not hooked up to one of your hemodialysis machines already."

"Well… Now I hope to know more about this mysterious patient. What's her name, for starters."

"It's not something that should be discussed in public, if you know what I mean."

There, he could see it… he had just said the magic words. Until he was Niven asking, he was fearing it was something related to his ties with the now-dead Doctor Lessing. But now that he was suspecting it was something different, and bigger than that, he immediately changed attitude.

"Of course… let's go in my office."

Sylar smiled. Stupid man blinded by men of power. After he convinced him Elizabeth was the illegitimate and very problematic daughter of a US Senator – he knew enough details about Claire's life and Nathan's past to make his lie sound very convincing – and _that_ was the reason why everything had to be kept secret, he became _incredibly_ cooperative. Elizabeth was taken in and hooked to a machine in no time. Ellison also ordered other exams and did whatever he could to demonstrate his efficiency to his 'colleague'.

"She needs to stay here for a while now. I'll check her again in an hour," he said, controlling once again the catheter access he inserted in the femoral vein. "If she wakes up, keep her awake."

Everyone pretended to thank Ellison for the help, and everyone relaxed once he was finally gone.

"Oh God, I thought he would never leave," commented Linda, sitting on a chair. "How did you convince him to help us?"

"It doesn't matter anymore," replied Sylar. "How long will this take?"

"Like he said, a couple of hours, three probably. It depends on the size of the patient, her physical conditions… and in Elizabeth's case, how much time the drug had to spread in her bloodstream".

_Three hours_? It was too much time to spend there. They were like sitting ducks, and he didn't dare hope that Bennet would stop looking for them. By now he was probably aware of Elizabeth's disappearance and of his men's death… How long would it take to Bennet to figure it all out? If he came back to the warehouse, he already knew he was the one responsible what the slaughtered men in there. But he couldn't know about Elizabeth's past and her ties with Doctor Niven, since to him she was still Isabel. But he couldn't be certain of that… the incertitude was killing him.

* * *

What was tormenting Bennet at the moment was not incertitude, but instead his own inability to link what had happened up to that moment with the murder of a local psychiatrist, one Evan Lessing, found dead with his head cut open. The cut was Sylar's _modus operandi_, but he couldn't understand why he killed that man. The brain was still there; he didn't kill him for an ability. Then why go looking for him in the first place? Lessing had been Isabel's doctor for many years, and Sylar was demonstrating a clear and unusual desire of protecting that crazy girl… was that the reason behind Lessing's murder?

His phone rang, and Bennet checked the ID. Angela. He sighed. Of all things that happened that day, explaining to Ms. Petrelli how Sylar and Isabel managed to escape him once again wasn't exactly on top of his list. But Angela wasn't interested in hearing what happened with the escapees and how many agents died since the beginning of that manhunt. She wanted to know if he found something on Elizabeth Porter, and if he already talked to Susanne Scavo, the only lead she had.

"I tried to speak with her, but she wasn't there. And she's a very private person."

"Ms. Scavo knows where that girl is now. Noah, I understand this is a detour from what you're doing now…"

"It's quite an understatement. And with all respect, finding that girl is not a priority. Catching Isabel and Sylar is."

"Elizabeth has been missing for twenty years. My… friend, she's devoted her life to find her. Consider it a personal favor to me, if you like."

"I will find that girl, Angela. But in this very moment I'm looking at Sylar's latest victim. A man he has no reason to kill… except to please, or protect, Isabel."

Angela remained silent for a while. Bennet could imagine her satisfied smile. "He's protecting her, when he could've killed her easily. You will convene with me, this is not his usual behavior."

"He's killing again. I told you, you can't tame an animal."

"I've already sent another team your way. They will deal with Isabel and Sylar, and you can join them as soon as Elizabeth Porter is back with her relatives."

"Is she one of us or one of them? This much you can tell."

"Judging from her family, she must be one of us. We don't know for sure, but I think you'll have to deal with another empath, a strong one."

"I'll try to talk again with Ms. Scavo."

"Keep me posted," said Angela, and then she ended the call.

Great. Freaking great. Another empath. Bennet knew of just one case about that type of empathy within the Company. One of the founders, no less: Paula Grumble. According to the archive, she went rogue forty years earlier after freeing one of the Company's first prisoners, Noah Reese, past generation's Sylar. What led a brilliant psychologist and a good agent to turn on her fiancé – Daniel Linderman - colleagues and friends like that was still unclear, after all those years. But the point still stood: Paula used her ability to manipulate and fool everyone around her. Not even Angela and Thompson, masters of deception, realized they had been played until it was too late.

He sighed. If he moved fast enough, he could make another attempt to meet Suzanne Scavo before her café closed for the night. Angela put another team on the Sylar and Isabel's manhunt, now he had all the time he needed to look for that girl.

Luckily for him, Suzanne was there. He was taking a moment to look at her through the window, thinking of the best way to approach her, when one of her waitresses got her attention and showed Suzanne he was looking at her. Probably she also told Suzanne he asked for her earlier that evening. Well, he thought, here goes nothing, and he stepped inside the café.

Suzanne approached him.

"I understand you're looking for me, Mr…?"

"Bennet. I'm very glad to finally meet you in person, Ms. Scavo. I need a moment of your time."

Suzanne gave him a dubious look, but she took him in the back of the café anyway, in order to talk without being interrupted. She had a feeling that whatever he was going to say, it was something that had to stay private.

"I'm here for Elizabeth Porter," he said once Suzanne had closed the door of her office behind her. Suzanne gave him a surprised look.

"And why didn't you say so _earlier_?"

"I wasn't sure of your reaction. My employer contacted me, and asked me to collect on behalf of your common friend all the information you might have on Elizabeth."

Suzanne gave Bennet a bitter smile. "You make it sound very mysterious. Anyway, I don't know much. She's here, she's holding on… but the things they've done to her in that place…"

"I don't understand, what things?"

"Listen, Elizabeth disappeared when she was still a child after she was wrongly diagnosed with an autistic disorder. Now she reappears clearly traumatized and covered in scars. You can do the math."

That description sounded really familiar to Bennet. Too much, actually. He took out a picture of Isabel and showed it to Suzanne. "Is this her?"

"Of course she is!"

"I'm afraid not. Her name's Isabel Parker, she's escaped from a mental institution in New York. She's dangerous."

"You have no idea of what are you talking about!"

"I think I know her pretty well by now."

"Do you? I _really_ think you don't."

Suzanne marched to a wall and took one of the framed photos on it. Angry as hell, she shoved the picture under Bennet's nose.

"Have a look."

The picture was old, and it represented a man and a woman in front of a watch store, probably taken on the inauguration day. The woman was pregnant and beaming with joy, the man was smiling broadly and hugging the woman next to him.

"These are Daniel and Daphne Porter," said Suzanne, enjoying the shocked expression on the man's face. "Elizabeth's _grandparents_. I suppose you already noticed the resemblance."

Resemblance? If Bennet didn't know that the photo in his hands was almost forty years old he could swear Elizabeth was the one pictured in it. Elizabeth and her grandmother looked exactly the same.

Oh my God. Bennet couldn't believe it. _Isabel was Elizabeth_? The girl that he was hunting down was the same he had to find on Angela's behalf? The same he had almost…

"Where can I find her? It's very important, please."

Unfortunately for him, Suzanne had no intention of telling him anything. She always felt a slight distrust toward that man, and now that feeling was just growing stronger and stronger…

"Actually, I'm not sure of where she is now. She might have even left town."

"Ms. Scavo…"

"You can't tell me who this 'common friend' is, can you?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Well, unless you can produce a proof, anything that can make me trust you, then I suggest you to go," said Suzanne with a tone that admitted no reply. Feigning defeat, Bennet retrieved his things from the chair near Suzanne's desk, and with a quick movement he placed a bug under the surface. If Elizabeth and Isabel were really one and the same, finding her also meant to find Sylar. Suzanne couldn't even imagine how much valuable that information was. She was probably going to call Angela's friend and ask for more instructions, and the moment she would do that, he would know as well.

* * *

One hour gone, another two to go.

Time had slowed down so much, in Sylar's opinion, it seemed like it had stopped. The only tangible signs were the sounds coming from the machine and Elizabeth's chest raising. Her breathing had improved, but she was still unable to keep her eyes open for much time. At the beginning he had thought she was drifting in and out of consciousness, then Elizabeth began projecting her feelings in his head again. It was like having a conversation without using words. Elizabeth was drained, and a bit scared by Niven's presence, but somehow comforted he was there with her. That also confused her a bit, though, and he couldn't blame her. Like her, Sylar didn't know why he was still there… and at the moment, he didn't care.

"She's one hell of a fighter," said Niven after checking her blood pressure. "The drug level in her blood could've killed her."

"She changed her mind, then," whispered Sylar, but loud enough for Niven to hear.

"Changed her mind?"

Sylar gave a look at Elizabeth. What was feeling in his head could be roughly translated as a '_please_, I'm begging you, no'.

"I think you know about her family. She couldn't cope… and she wanted a way out."

"Did she…?"

"No. Someone else did."

"That's why her clothes and yours are stained with blood?"

"It's not hers."

"What does that mean?"

Sylar gave the doctor an eloquent look. "It's not _hers_."

The doctor remained silent, and looked at Elizabeth with a sadness and remorse in his eyes.

"I could save her life another billion times, but we will never be even. Everything I did after I left that place, to find redemption… what I did was always in front of my eyes. Maybe one day I'll ask for her forgiveness, when I'll be sure I deserve it," he said, and left the room soon after.

Sylar didn't say a word, but Elizabeth seemed convinced he was telling the truth; she replied to his doubts with a small smile, the first voluntary movement she did in an hour. Elizabeth was slowly regaining control over her body, and even if it cost her energy she didn't have, she kept projecting into Sylar's head. He soon learned how to mimic her way of modulating emotions to make them feel more like a coherent speech than something random, and began to use it as well. Empathy required an enormous amount of control, like she had said to him… what, just a few hours earlier?

At the back of his head, he could distinctly feel Elizabeth laughing. Or at least, the feelings he would usually associate with laughing… or even teasing. Like a big, resonating yet silent 'Told you so.' Elizabeth was really one of a kind, a walking contradiction. She had the power of making people do whatever the hell she wanted without them even noticing, and yet she ended up a victim because that power didn't allow her to harm people, except when her self-preservation instinct kicked in.

"Don't feel sorry for me. It doesn't feel right," Elizabeth slowly whispered, still keeping her eyes closed.

"Do you think you know me just after two days?"

"I felt your struggle in the bank. I knew you were going to turn on that man, Bennet, before _you_ knew it."

"You can't feel that bad, if you're ready to have a fight."

"I feel sick and my head is spinning… but it's a fight I can win. Gabriel… why are you doing this?"

"My name's Sylar."

"I refuse to call you a watch brand," Elizabeth said, finally opening her eyes.

"For someone that can barely move, you can be very annoying."

"Wishing you cut my head open when you had the chance?" asked Elizabeth with a faint smile on her lips.

That was really a good question. With Elizabeth dead, thing would've been very different… and he would've gotten a power he couldn't control and that would certainly drive him to madness. Observing her led Sylar to realize empathy wasn't something he wanted to have in his head. And she was definitely a burden, but a burden he had decided to carry, God only knew why.

He caught a sparkle of amusement in Elizabeth's blue eyes, and realized too late he had already answered her question.

"How long do I have to stay here?"

"Couple of hours."

"What? No… No, we can't, it's too much time, Bennet is still here looking for us, we can't stay here!" said Elizabeth, trying to get up and rip the needles off her arms. Sylar gripped her by the shoulders and kept her down while she tried to fight against him. After a few minutes, Elizabeth had to give in, and Sylar, still holding her tightly, bend over Elizabeth so much their faces were almost touching.

"Stop it. _Right now_."

"We have to hide, we can't stay here…"

"Even if he comes looking for us here, no one will tell a thing. We're not even here, after all. Calm down."

Elizabeth turned her head and felt tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I just want this to end," she whispered. "Everything. I want a normal life…"

"This is normality now. Deal with it."

Elizabeth went back at staring at him, and he immediately let her go. He hated the way those eyes could see right through him. Elizabeth was probably right when she said she knew him. The more time they spent together, the more she could read his feelings and reactions like an open book.

The only consolation was that it didn't have to last forever. Maybe he wouldn't be the one to kill her, but he couldn't stay with her either... Emotions make you act sloppy and unfocused, it was what he repeated to himself since the beginning. Elizabeth obliged him to feel, and Sylar didn't like it. At all.

* * *

Linda finally relaxed only when she sat in her car at the end of her shift. Isaac assured her she could go home, that the situation was now under control, but Linda decided she could pull the plug for half an hour and come back to help the doctor. And to hell what Niven thought, he was going to owe her big time after that night.

She stopped at a crossroad, and while waiting for the light to go green Linda gave a look inside Suzanne Scavo's café. Pity it was already closed, she would've loved a cup of coffee and one of Suzanne's bagels…

All of sudden, Suzanne appeared brandishing a mop, and Linda smiled. Maybe if she asked nice Suzanne would feed an old schoolmate… and when the light turned green, she decided to find out. Linda parked her car nearby the café, and then knocked lightly on the window to get Suzanne's attention. Suzanne looked at her with a smile, and Linda waved at her, pointing at the door. Her friend dropped the mop against a table and moved to open the door.

"Linda, hi! It's been too long!" said Suzanne, hugging the friend.

"So true. So, how are things going?"

"Nothing I can complain about… hey, you hungry? Griddle's still hot, I didn't turn it off yet."

"I hoped you said so. I'm starving, and I have to go back to the hospital in half an hour…"

"Perfect! Have a seat, I'll be back in a second. Any preferences?"

"Edible food will do."

Suzanne turned with a smile and disappeared in the kitchen. Linda covered her face with her hands and sighed. What a day. At least now she could exchange a few words with a friendly face…

"Here I come," said Suzanne, coming back from the kitchen a few minutes later with a plate full of food in one hand and two mugs of fresh coffee in the other.

"Dear God, you're a life-safer!"

"Yeah, well, I've always suspected it. Do you mind if we move in my office? You're the only one I want to make an exception for."

"Sounds fair," said Linda, gathering her things and following the dark-haired woman in the back of the café.

"So… any news? Any interesting hospital gossip I should know?"

"Darling, you watch too much _Grey's Anatomy_."

"So nothing new about your doctor friend, Niven?"

"N-No…"

Suzanne watched her with an arched eyebrow.

"Linda, you're an awful liar."

Linda sighed. "Nothing, and I mean _nothing_ I'm going to say has to get out of this place. OK?"

"Of course… Linda, what's wrong?"

"I've always thought that Isaac's behavior when he fist came working here was a little weird, like he was atoning for something. Then this evening a girl shows up, covered in scars, drugged and in bad shape, and all of sudden he's back behaving that way…"

"Who is she?"

"Good question. He didn't tell me a thing, and that attack dog that poses as her boyfriend isn't a big talker either. He's sure Isaac will never tell me her name."

"Weird."

"Right. I'm going back to the hospital to help him with her. She's under hemodialysis right now… Now her situation got better, but when I first saw her… Poor girl," she commented, sinking her teeth in her hamburger. She was going to take another bite, when her eyes fell on a framed picture on Suzanne's desk.

"Linda what's wrong? It looks like you've seen a ghost! It's not the first time you look at that picture."

"Suzanne," said Linda, trying to regain a little calm. "The girl I'm talking about… it's Daphne's spitting image."

Now was Suzanne's turn to widen her eyes in shock.

"What? 'Zanne, what's wrong?"

"Do you want to know who that girl is? Fine. She's Elizabeth Porter."

"_Lizzie Porter_? Michael's child? I thought she was dead… I never heard anything about her in years!"

"I don't know much, but clearly they did something to her when she was institutionalized."

"You think… Lessing? The rumors are true, then?"

"And you told me there was a guy with her? A tall, dark-haired guy in his early thirties?"

Linda nodded.

"That was Gabriel… Gabriel Gray. I met both of them a few hours ago… I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw her walking down the street."

"Definitely. My God… Elizabeth Porter… Suzanne, we have to tell her the truth. Now."

"No, we can't. How can we explain to Elizabeth what we did? It's beyond crazy!"

"Well, it wasn't our idea, it was _his_."

"Doesn't matter, you were there and I… Listen, everything will be revealed at the right time and by the only person that can tell the whole story. Let's just make sure Elizabeth gets to hear it."

"Of course."

"And if a man with horn-rimmed glasses should ask you, or come to the hospital… don't say anything. I don't trust him… even if he said he was looking for Elizabeth on behalf of 'our common friend'. Our common friend would never send someone like him, to start with. And he was sure Elizabeth was called Isabel, and that she was some kind of dangerous psychopath."

"Got it, he won't come close to her."

In his car, Noah Bennet involuntarily smiled. By the time the two women arrived to that conclusions, he had already identified Suzanne's friend and was already driving to the hospital to get Elizabeth. Linda said something about hemodialysis, and he would start looking from there.

Suzanne and Linda left the café together. Now that Linda knew Elizabeth's identity, she was even more determined to help, and Suzanne wanted to be there for Elizabeth. While Linda called Niven and informed him that A, she knew everything and was royally pissed at him, and B, they had to keep that guy with the glasses away from Elizabeth, Suzanne dialed again— a Las Vegas phone number.

"Yes?"

"Sorry for waking you up."

"Like I could sleep after what you told me. Suzanne, what's happening? I thought everything would be over by now."

"There's been complications. Elizabeth is in hospital."

"Oh my God. Is she fine?"

"She will be. Linda and Doctor Niven are looking after her."

"Ah."

Suzanne didn't miss the disappointment in her friend's voice.

"Better him than someone else, don't you think? And speaking of that… did you send a guy with horn-rimmed glasses to fetch Elizabeth?"

"Noah Bennet. I called an old friend of mine and she said he would take Elizabeth here."

"Well, he believed Elizabeth's name was Isabel Parker. He also told me some absurd stories…"

"I understand. My fault, I suppose… I should've _never_ delegate something so important to Angela. But she assured me… well, nevermind. I've already sent someone else… someone that will handle the situation better, I hope. Stay with Elizabeth, I want to know how she's doing."

"You know I will. Call you back when we're there."

Linda drove back to the hospital the faster she could, and just by chance the two women managed to avoid Bennet, already there in the hospital and asking for the hemodialysis facility.

"How in the hell did he know?"

"It doesn't matter. We have to warn Isaac," said Linda, dragging her friend towards the stairs. They had the small advantage of knowing exactly where Elizabeth was, and they couldn't lose a second.

The other advantage they had, but didn't know they do, was represented by Doctor Ellison. Still convinced he was treating Senator Petrelli's lovechild, he was adamant in not giving any information to that guy with glasses… even if between Doctor Davies and this one, he couldn't honestly tell which man had the scariest attitude.

But when Bennet started talking about a girl named Elizabeth Porter, Doctor Lessing, and the psychiatric hospital where Lessing worked with Niven, he realized his biggest fear had already manifested itself.

"That son of a bitch… he played me! _They all played me_! Oh, if I'll make them pay…"

"Doctor, I really need to find that girl, now. Her family has been looking for her for years, and…"

"No need to tell me more… this way, please. She came here with all the symptoms of an overdose… now she should be right in the middle of the treatment," he said, opening a door. "One hour and half and she will be…"

Both men found themselves looking at an empty bed.

"…all yours."

"Damn it!" Bennet cursed under his breath. Doctor Ellison immediately got out of the room and asked where the hell was the patient that was in that room just a few minutes earlier.

"Doctor Niven said the treatment was over and that he was going to take her back to her room," replied one of the nurses, and Bennet felt the desire to punch the wall in frustration. Elizabeth escaped him once again, and he didn't even have to ask about Sylar… pardon, Doctor Davies. He went to great lengths to protect that girl… what was so special about that crazy empath?

* * *

That particular question was one that Sylar decided to stop asking himself, since he couldn't find an answer and the only possible one wasn't something he would admit even to himself. Niven and the nurse took care of helping them to get to the parking, and then Suzanne offered to drive them back to Elizabeth's grandparents' apartment. He was going to refuse, but he didn't need empathy to understand how much that woman was devoted to Elizabeth.

Ignoring Suzanne's attempts to help, Sylar took Elizabeth in his arms and carried her in the apartment upstairs. On the bedroom floor Suzanne could see wet clothes stained with blood, like Elizabeth's clothes… but she wasn't wounded. And if it was linked somehow to Elizabeth's condition, then she didn't want to know. Suzanne didn't know much about Elizabeth's friend, but she saw how hard he was trying to protect her. She didn't catch that vibe earlier that day, but now…

"I don't think I want to know what really happened today, do I?"

"You're right, you don't," said Sylar laying Elizabeth down on the bed. She was still conscious, but interrupting the therapy didn't help her condition. Now he just hoped that machine took enough of that drug out of her blood and that Elizabeth could do the rest on her own.

"Maybe I should stay…"

Sylar slowly turned his head. "I got everything under control. You can go now."

It wasn't an invite, and Suzanne knew it. But she was determined not to be left behind. She made a promise, after all.

"I don't live far from here. Anything happens, you call me. Are we clear?"

"She's not going anywhere, and neither am I for that matter."

"I'll take that as a yes. Listen, I don't know much about you, but Elizabeth's father was like a brother to me, and Daphne and Daniel the family I never had. Just to let you know how much this thing is important to me."

_And for me too, for some reason I can't understand_, Sylar wanted to reply. He opted instead for a nod of his head and the first words he could find to keep Suzanne calm and convince her to leave them alone.

Once Suzanne left, Sylar sat on the bed, with his back to Elizabeth. Yes, Elizabeth was completely helpless now, but he had caught a glimpse of a much stronger person behind all those layers of fear and sorrow. Someone that would be very useful as an ally rather than an enemy… but could he risk having someone around that could so easily read inside of him?

"My head hurts," Elizabeth slowly said. "You think too much."

Sylar turned to took at her. "And you should rest," he said, getting up. Before he could move, though, Elizabeth clutched his wrist with all her strength.

"Stay. Please…"

He gazed into her eyes, and once again his reasoning about why he was so intrigued with Elizabeth stopped being important.

At the moment, she needed his help.

Everything else could wait.


	7. Chapter 7

When Sylar opened his eyes in the morning, for a second he felt… confused. A feeling he wasn't used to feel, until a petite empathic blonde crossed paths with him a few days earlier.

He thought about what had happened that night, and cursed his maniacal curiosity again, his obsession to understand the real nature of things. He had seen through that doctor's eyes what had happened to Elizabeth, and through Niven's eyes as well, to a certain extent. But Sylar could see how the biggest part was still missing… and he wanted to see Elizabeth's point of view as well.

Elizabeth gave up trying to stay awake a couple of hours earlier and was sleeping; he decided he would take advantage of that moment to absorb her memories and sated his curiosity. Nothing could go wrong, and she would've never known that… or at least, that were his intentions.

He regretted his decision when Elizabeth felt the touch of his hand on her and abruptly woke up. She immediately started to scream and fight against his attempts to keep her down on the bed. It took Sylar twenty minutes to finally make her listen and convince her she has nothing to fear from him. She was acting like earlier in the street, like she couldn't really see him. Sylar wondered who she was fighting so violently against, and then all of sudden he touched her neck and his power kicked in.

It was in that moment, that he finally absorbed her memories. He saw her as a little girl trying to win her mother's love and lose every single time, how that woman abandoned her in that hellish place, all the tests and probing a younger Lessing and his entourage did to her and what the doctor was able to do to her once he obtained to be the only one working with Elizabeth. It was enough to make him shiver, but as Elizabeth told him earlier, the worse part was yet to come. The violence perpetrated on her by those people was clearly the cause why she was so scared of being touched by him. Sylar witnessed Elizabeth being abused night after night, until Elizabeth couldn't take it anymore and projected her pain and fear into the doctors, nurses and patients in the close surroundings of her room, killing them instantly. Bennet came a few days after to take her to Level Five, and Elizabeth fought against him with all the strength she had, but she got sedated by the Haitian and carried away. She was aware of every single second of that, thanks to her brain's uncanny reaction to drugs, but she couldn't move or do anything about it. She was held responsible for the murders, because everyone told Bennet and the Company she did it on purpose, trying to escape… At the Company they trapped her in her own guilt; they magnified it so that Elizabeth – Isabel – would never think the truth was different from the one they had been telling her since her arrival there.

Sylar let immediately Elizabeth go, and watched the girl curling in a fetal position, holding the blanket tightly against her body. Sylar's hand stayed frozen in midair, unsure of what to do next... then he remembered, there was just one man whose touch Elizabeth didn't fear. So he moved his hand and gently stroked Elizabeth's hair at the top of her head, like he had seen her father do in her memories. She kept shaking like a leaf, but when she realized he was Gabriel, and not one of 'them', the man sitting on her bed in the dark room, she started to calm down a little. She kept asking if it was really him, like he could disappear out of thin air to be replaced by one of her nightmare men. Just a few hours earlier he had used her PTSD to coerce her into doing his bidding, but in that moment he just wanted her to stop being scared of him.

When he laid down on the other side of the bed, his intention was to keep an eye on her until she fell asleep again… he didn't plan to fall asleep as well, but when he woke up he had to admit it had been a long time since he slept so well. The hunger, the lingering guilt for betraying her mother's trust… all gone. He felt lighter, like he'd never felt in years, not since childhood.

Only then he noticed Elizabeth moved in her sleep and that now her head rested on his shoulder. Like a lover, he couldn't help but think. God, there had been a time in which if someone like Elizabeth had walked inside his watch store he would've thought she was God's answer to his prayers, but that life was definitely over, and he wasn't going to look back. He had already decided the way Elizabeth could be useful to him; nothing else had to be included in the equation.

Sylar slowly let Elizabeth's hand go… and suddenly it was like someone had thrown a bucket of icy water at him. He wasn't feeling bad, but all the peace and calm he felt only a few seconds earlier was gone. He looked at Elizabeth, still asleep against him, with a puzzled look. How could she do that if she was asleep?

Elizabeth, sensing the change in his mood, slightly frowned in her sleep and moved her head from Sylar's shoulder to his chest. Sylar felt his doubts disappearing, and decided to stop thinking about it for the moment, if only to stop messing with her sleep. Trying not to wake her, Sylar got up and left the room. The clock on the kitchen wall was running one minute and a half fast, but the hour – eight in the morning – was correct. He found some coffee in one of the kitchen counters and was about to make some, when he heard some noise coming from the bedroom. A few moments later, Elizabeth appeared in the corridor, leaning heavily against the wall.

"What do you think you're doing? Go back to bed!"

Elizabeth shook her head, and reached the couch. "Last thing I want to do is go back to sleep," she said, sitting down and holding her head in her hands.

"Feeling better?"

"The room is spinning, I still feel sick, but all things considered… yeah, I feel better," said Elizabeth, leaning her head against the couch's cushion.

"Glad to hear it, because we can't stay here any longer."

"Gabriel…"

"Stop calling me that," he replied, harsher than he actually meant.

"Why do you hate your name so much?"

"It's not my real name."

"I find it suits you more than Sylar. Wanna know why?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me anyway."

"You're right. My Grandma… she believed in angels, but not in the way people usually does. You know, good, chubby little angels sent to protect people and stuff. According to her, angels are warriors… and archangels – Michael, Gabriel, Raphael – even more so. Archangels are absolute… heaven's most terrifying weapon. And if the life of someone protected by one of them was threatened by anyone, then the most fearsome wrath of heaven would fell down on that person and annihilate it."

Sylar watched Elizabeth without saying a word. When Maya compared him to an angel sent by God to help her, he laughed at that stupid idea of hers. Maya was blinded by her faith, and that just helped him to gain her trust and keep her away from her brother. Elizabeth on certain aspects was as naïve as Maya, but something in her words, the way she had just described angels…

It took him just a look in her eyes to understand the hidden meaning of her words.

"You remember."

"This blood… I don't have any wound, so it can't be mine. And I felt something weird when I was in the warehouse. Terror, pain… just a flash in my mind, but I felt it."

Sylar gave Elizabeth another piercing look, while he walked towards a chair and sat opposite Elizabeth.

"I'm not an angel. No matter what you believe."

"You saved my life. You weren't obliged to… but you did it anyway."

"And I killed people to do it."

"Do you think I can judge you? Take the moral high ground and tell you your actions were wrong? You would just laugh at my face. I've taken lives too."

"You didn't mean to."

"I didn't want to kill the patients. They were just innocent bystanders. But everyone else… Lessing… I dreamt for years of making them suffer as they did me."

"Every action causes a reaction… Those deaths were caused by fear. Fear, Elizabeth. That was self-defense, not cold-blooded killing."

"Wow, my Company file must be very detailed."

"Nothing like that. I can absorb memories. I absorbed yours."

"You… what?"

Sylar smiled of Elizabeth's sudden frightened expression.

"You can see inside of me. It's only fair I can have that much of insight on you too."

Again, he underestimated the weight of his actions. Elizabeth immediately jumped on her feet, furious. "You had no right to do that!"

If Elizabeth had given a little more thought to that action, she would've realized that she had no need to shout or try to hit the man in front of her, when she could use her ability to teach him a lesson. And that she was in no condition to do any of the things she wanted to do. Elizabeth's knees started shaking under her weight, and she would've fallen on the floor if Sylar didn't catch her. He was holding her too tightly for Elizabeth to break the embrace; anyway, just before Sylar could start reproaching her for not thinking before acting, he heard a choked sob and clearly felt her hand – the one she had raised to slap him, probably – curl up in a fist against his chest. Sylar thought that even in perfect health conditions, Elizabeth couldn't physically harm anyone. But that didn't stop her from trying, hitting Sylar on the chest and repeating that he shouldn't have done that to her. He let her, until she felt her clutching the fabric of his shirt, probably wishing she could do that to his skin and scratch it until the blood would come out.

For the first time after he left New York and the Company, he felt something similar to guilt. No… it was something different, not the kind of guilt that could be induced. He was feeling honestly guilty about causing her pain.

She was right, he should've never absorbed her memories. Ignoring her protests, he swept her off her feet and laid her down on the couch again. Elizabeth curled up in a corner, far from him, and shot him a death glare.

"Why? Just… why?"

"Because knowing how things work is my obsession."

"I'm not one of your watches, I'm a person. You should've asked me!"

"You would've told me what happened on the Christmas Eve of four years ago?"

Elizabeth lowered her eyes and instinctively hugged her knees closer to her chest.

"This is way under the belt, even for you," she whispered in a sad, serious voice. Sylar sat down at the other side of the couch, without speaking. He looked at Elizabeth, but Elizabeth had no intention of raising her eyes.

"Why do you hate your mother?" she asked then, out of the blue.

"It's a long story."

"I don't care. You owe me."

Sylar for a second felt tempted to reply that he didn't owe her anything… but that lingering guilt suffocated his protests before he could voice them. And Elizabeth finally raised her eyes and looked at him in the face. She was deadly serious about that one… Sylar leant his head on the couch and looked at the ceiling.

"'Not enough'… these two words can describe my relationship with her. Not smart enough, not ambitious enough… Nothing I did was never enough for her. And when I showed her my powers… she rejected me like I was some kind of monster. She made me feel… insignificant."

"Is she…? Is she still breathing?"

"It was an accident, if that may help."

"I know. You're telling me the truth. And your father?"

Elizabeth clearly felt a sudden wave of resentment and rage coming from him. He didn't want to speak about him, but at the moment Elizabeth didn't care. She was angry at him too for her memories to have been violated that way. She was just making things even.

"Went out for cigarettes one day and never came back. Or so the story goes."

"Maybe… maybe he did the right thing."

"How so?"

"If my mother had left me with my father instead of staying and let her hate for the family grow… well, who knows. Things would've been better."

"He was just a pathetic coward that took the easy way out."

"Your mother's words, not yours. I can tell the difference. You always did what she wanted, right? To please her. Just to hear her say at least once that she was proud of you."

"Stop."

"I did it too, until I had the chance. But you know this already, don't you?"

"I said stop."

"You don't tell me what I can do, Gabriel," hissed Elizabeth, her enraged expression matching the one Sylar had in that moment. Like hell I can't, he was ready to tell her, when Elizabeth all of sudden frowned and looked at the door, to look back at him a few seconds later.

"What happened? Elizabeth?"

The girl didn't answer at first, but she moved on the couch to touch Sylar's hand and concentrated on him. Elizabeth then slowly raised her eyes on Sylar, looking worried and scared.

"I can't feel you. My power… it's gone. I don' t feel a thing!"

There was just one likely scenario in Sylar's mind, and when he failed to move a cup on the kitchen counter with his telekinesis he got all the proofs he needed.

"We have to go. Now."

"Where? We're trapped!"

A few seconds later they both heard someone knocking at the door, and Elizabeth never felt more betrayed and hurt in her life when she felt Suzanne's voice from behind the door.

"Gabriel? Elizabeth? It's me, let me in!" Suzanne said, knocking some more. The dark-skinned woman with her gave Suzanne an uncertain look.

"Are you sure they are here?"

"She was too sick to be moved when I last saw her, they have to be here. I just don't understand…"

"I'm afraid I do," the woman replied, giving the Haitian a nod with her head. Nora would've never risked her life and the lives of her team by creeping out at the back of a killer with enhanced hearing and a dozen more abilities, but she didn't know enough of Elizabeth's power to know how sensitive it was. Sounds like I have an answer now, she thought. The man gave her the same gesture and walked down the stairs. Nora pressed her palm against the door and the second she felt her powers coming back to her, she sent an energy blast through the door, causing Suzanne to lose balance because of the shockwave and to Sylar and Elizabeth to drop on the floor before they could run.

"What… What was that?"

"Nothing to worry about, Suzanne. Open the door, please," said Nora, stepping aside so that Suzanne could insert the key. When the door opened and Suzanne saw both Elizabeth and Sylar unconscious on the floor, she barely held back a scream and ran to check Elizabeth's pulse.

"What the hell did you do? You promised me you wouldn't harm them!"

"I didn't harm them, Suzanne, calm down. I just stunned them with an energy blast."

"A what?"

Nora couldn't help but smile. "She really keeps the information on a need-to-know basis with you, huh?"

"After what happened I don't think I can blame her. Anyway… screw that. I asked to be kept in the dark and I still think I don't want to know. For now."

"As you wish," Nora said, dialing a number on her phone. While she was waiting for her employer to pick up, other four agents came inside the apartment and took Elizabeth and Sylar with them, under Suzanne's worried eyes.

"I told you, they're going to be fine. A little hungover, maybe, but they'll survive…"

She then mouthed 'sorry' and indicated the phone, a signal that she couldn't talk to her anymore.

"Everything went according to plan, ma'am."

"For a change."

"If I may, you should've never asked Angela Petrelli to handle this situation."

"But she grant us the Haitian's help."

"Only after one of her dreams."

"Well, since you're so eager, I will allow you to tell me 'I told you so' as soon as you'll be back here with Gabriel and Elizabeth."

"We're already en route to the airport. We should arrive in Vegas in a few hours."

"I'll alert the medical staff. Call me back when can you give me a more precise time of arrival."

"Of course, Mrs. Linderman," replied Nora, and ended the call.

"What now?" asked Suzanne, now that the woman could give her full attention.

"Nothing. You go back to your life, as if nothing ever happened."

"I already tried it; it doesn't work… otherwise I wouldn't have made that phone call."

"Then I'm sorry, because there's nothing else I can do for you."

"Except keeping me posted."

"Only if she agrees to that."

"Oh, she will, you don't even have to ask."

"Well, if you don't mind… I have to go. Time to tell Bennet to go back to studying how to efficiently place a bug."

"Give him a punch on the face for me, would you?"

Nora nodded, and headed out of the door.

"Nora?" said Suzanne out of the blue, stopping the woman.

"Yes?"

"Take care of Lizzie."

Nora smiled to her and slightly nodded. "You know I will."


	8. Chapter 8

When Elizabeth woke up, she realized with a shiver she didn't have the faintest idea of where she was. The last thing she remembered was that strong energy wave that hit her and Gabriel, making her lose consciousness. How much time had passed since that moment?

Elizabeth frowned and sat up on the bed. She thought she would wake up in her cell at Level Five, but this place looked nothing like that. It looked more like some incredibly fancy hotel suite, with expensive furniture and a really huge, comfortable bed. She couldn't feel anyone around her, and that didn't help her calm down. And where was Gabriel?

She wouldn't get her answers by sitting in bed, so Elizabeth decided to stand up and look for clues in the room. She was prepared to feel dizzy and weak… but that feeling never came. Elizabeth wasn't expecting to feel that good. Better, actually, then she'd felt in years. No dizziness, no confusion in her head… It was in that moment that she realized there was nothing wrong with her ability. Her power was still there, but it wasn't no more as overwhelming as it always had been. All the people in that place were still in her head, but she had space for herself too… and that was new.

Elizabeth scanned the room for clues about her location, but her knowledge of the world was too limited to understand where she was just from looking at the view from her window. She tried to open the door of her room, but it was locked from the outside. Again, she began to feel scared. A prison was still a prison, even with fancy furniture… but if she wasn't a Company prisoner, then who was holding her there?

Elizabeth heard some noise in the corridor, and stepped back when she realized someone was going to get inside. Someone she already knew…

***

Grace couldn't help but smile at the young girl and her confused expression. Not too many years earlier, she had been in her place, with the same mistrust in her eyes. But Mrs. Linderman could be very… persuasive, when she wanted something. Her, in that case. Grace never regretted starting to work for her, and did whatever she could to repay a woman crazy enough to make a former thief and grifter head of security of the Corinthian Hotel.

"I believe you've many questions to ask. I'll try to answer them. Grace Sinclair," she added then, outstretching her hand. "Nice to meet you, Elizabeth."

"How do you know my name?"

"I know many things about you. But don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you… quite the opposite."

Elizabeth was testing Grace, searching for anything that could indicate a lie… but Grace was sincere. Still, Elizabeth wasn't inclined to trust her.

"I met you before."

"A couple of days ago. When I took you here. Sorry about that, I couldn't risk you to go away… not after all this time!"

"What the hell are you talking about? And where is Gabriel? What have you done to him?"

"Sylar is fine. We did nothing to him, except keeping him sedated. The way he behaved with you… it's unusual for him. We don't like to gamble around here… bit rich, huh?"

Elizabeth frowned. Clearly Grace had just made a joke, but she didn't get it.

"Anyway, now that you're awake and clearly well, why don't we sit and have a little talk?"

"Take me to him. Now."

"I will, but we have to talk first. It won't take long, I promise. Can I get you something? We have the best room service of the entire town."

"I'm fine," Elizabeth said, sitting on the couch. Grace sat opposite her, and crossed her legs.

"Good. Then let's get started. First question?"

"Where am I?"

"Las Vegas. Nevada. Other side of the country."

"Why am I here?"

"It's not for me to tell. But my employer spent a lot of time and money in order to find you, so you must be important to her."

"Her?"

"Mrs. Lindeman. Widow of late Daniel Linderman, businessman and owner the Corinthian hotel and casino, where we're currently at."

"I don't know anyone with that name."

"But she knows everything about you."

"I can tell there's more. What are you not telling me?"

"Mrs. Linderman wants to have a private chat with you. She will explain everything."

"Is she… with the Company?"

"We worked with them in the past, but not anymore. My employer is not happy with the way the Company was ran by the founders and detached from them many years ago. She went back briefly one year ago, but it's over now."

Sincerity. Nothing but sincerity. Elizabeth couldn't believe it. No one was that sincere with another human being. Even if her power was giving her all reasons to trust her, her brain was screaming her to find Gabriel and run away. Grace didn't seem to know her ability, or that whatever they did to her gave her all that control over it. It was time to test projection.

"Grace, now I really, really want to see Gabriel. Do you think I can meet him alone?"

Elizabeth was trying her best not to start laughing. All the pain, the fatigue she felt when she tried to do that to someone was completely gone. It was like all of Grace's emotions where in front of her, like strings of an harp. The woman was completely in her power, and she didn't suspect a thing. In fact, after a few minutes, Grace was convinced it was her idea all along.

Elizabeth was sorry – Grace seemed a nice girl – but she didn't escape the Company to end up in the hands of someone else. And this time she would've been the one to save Gabriel.

"Grace, where is Sylar exactly? You clearly must have more important things to do than babysitting me, I can go there by myself," she said with a sweet tone, boosting all the positive things Grace was feeling towards her. Grace wasn't sure if she had to tell Elizabeth – it was confidential – but when Elizabeth took her hand and one again projected her emotions into the woman, something weird happened. Grace's face went blank for a second, and when she looked at her she began to tell her exactly what she needed to do to find Sylar and how to not get caught by security.

"You can use my pass, you can go everywhere with it!" she finished with a big smile. For a second Elizabeth saw herself with her mother, when she was little. It was like Grace was doing whatever she could to please her… Well, whatever that thing was, it would have to wait until she took Gabriel out of there. She thanked Grace – she looked a little heartbroken when Elizabeth ran away – and using all the information she gave her, Elizabeth moved smoothly along the corridors, avoiding the omnipresent cameras and personnel. Elizabeth's heart threatened to jump out of her chest, but she ordered herself to stay calm. Keep a low profile, she repeated to herself while accessing a wing of the hotel that was forbidden to guests. And it wasn't that difficult to understand why… that place didn't look like an expensive hotel. It looked like the Company, and it gave her the impression that A., that collaboration between Mrs. Linderman and the New York facility never really ceased, or B., Gabriel and she were in bigger trouble than Elizabeth first imagined.

She sort of smiled at that thought. She couldn't believe that just a few days ago she was a terrified, pathetic creature that just wanted to die because she couldn't handle life. That girl would've never done willingly what she did to Grace a few moments earlier. It was like that brush with death changed something inside of her and took away that part of herself. Elizabeth wasn't the one that had to be afraid of her ability. Now she knew what she was able to do, and most of all, she could control it. She wouldn't have any problem with breaking Gabriel out of that place. She found it ironic she felt safer around a killer like him than around normal people. Even more ironic was that it took someone like him for her to truly start considering her power something to treasure and not to hate.

I'll make sure to tell him that once we are out of here, she thought, and once again used Grace's pass to enter Room 204, where (according to Grace) Sylar was held. She couldn't have known that Grace had been found a few moments earlier, in a altered state of mind and without her magnetic card. Luckily for her, the Haitian was still around: a second in his presence, and all the effects of Elizabeth's mind control vanished like snow in the sun.

"Unbelievable," was the only thing Grace could say. Tricked by that girl like that was her first day!

"Go check Sylar. Now!" she shouted to the other agents once she regained a little control. "We underestimated their connection. And Elizabeth is not the helpless child Mrs. Linderman believes her to be!"

She couldn't still believe what had happened to her. One second she was in control, and the next she would've done everything to please Elizabeth, everything. They had to act quickly— otherwise, no one would be able to stop the girl and Sylar from getting out of there without anyone raising a finger to catch them.

***

It took Elizabeth less than a second to realize what kind of sedation was given to Sylar, and she immediately tore the tube off his nose. Even if she had been one of the quietest, low-profile residents of Level Five, there had bee a few times when she was put under inhibitor, when her panic attacks couldn't be sedated by normal medicines. She hated that stuff, but the good thing was that if it kicked in fast, it wore off even faster. After a minute Gabriel was himself again, and tried not to look at Elizabeth with surprise. Did he really have to thank the little empath for his freedom?

"Hey, that's not nice!" she said, slightly peeved, hitting him in the shoulder.

"How did you find me?" asked Sylar, getting back on his feet.

"I… I don't know exactly. I asked a woman and she told me. Period."

Sylar stopped a second to gave Elizabeth a confused look. "You just asked and she told you?"

"I touched her, for a second she went blank and then she did everything I asked her. Can we please analyze this freaky power of mine once we're out of here?"

Emotion manipulation, projection, and now the ability of taking over a person's mind through empathy. For a second the hunger came back, yearning for power, taunting Sylar with a million ways he could've used those abilities… but he had already decided the toll for taking Elizabeth's power was too high to pay, and he would've kept his word. She was a fast learner, he could see that clearly… Maya could've been a shiny toy to use and discard, but Elizabeth was different. And it would be interesting to keep her around.

"Lead the way," Sylar said with a smirk.

Elizabeth smiled back at him, but her it soon faded when she felt a familiar sensation of numbness spreading inside of her.

"It's happening again. Like at the apartment. We have to run, now!"

Sylar opened the door, and at Elizabeth's signal they both rushed in the corridor. Elizabeth used that weird feeling she'd had earlier to move in the right direction; however, soon what was left of her power disappeared as well, leaving the girl completely blind. Elizabeth started to feel dizzy again, but she ignored it; they had to get out of there, everything else could wait…

Suddenly, the door in front of them opened and Grace appeared in the corridor, along with the Haitian and a few guards. Sylar unconsciously stepped in front of Elizabeth. The girl grasped his shoulder, half for support and half for protection. She didn't need to turn to know that other guards were coming from the opposite direction. They were trapped.

Grace sighed. "Clearly I underestimated your connection. My bad. But really… Elizabeth, you've nothing to fear in this place."

"Why did you give him the inhibitor?"

"Because we value our lives, darling. We couldn't know how he would react… so we acted on the worst case scenario. We have no intention to harm you either, Sylar… so we really, really hope the feeling will be mutual."

Sylar was going to make a snarky remark when he heard Elizabeth moaning behind him and turned just in time to catch her before she fell on the floor.

"Elizabeth?"

"My head… it's like it was before…it hurts, there are too many people in here!"

Grace motioned for two of her men to get Elizabeth, but a glare from Sylar was more than enough to freeze them.

"She's not going anywhere."

"She must. We gave her a blood transfusion, but the effect is wearing off. Elizabeth needs medical attention right now."

"He's coming with," Elizabeth whispered against Sylar's chest.

"It'd better if…"

"I'm coming with," Sylar repeated with a tone that admitted no reply. Grace, that knew when it was wiser to admit defeat than to keep fighting, lifted her eyes to the ceiling and gave her approval.

"At least we'll be certain she won't try and escape again. Come on, you two. Back to your room."

All of a sudden, the mere prospect of lying down in that huge bed became extremely tempting to Elizabeth, especially when her knees once again threatened not to sustain her. Sylar resolved the problem by carrying the girl in his arms, ignoring her faint protests, and watched her like a hawk until the doctors came in her room and started the blood transfusion.

"This is just a patch," Grace said. "You will need to do some more exams, so we can understand how to help you. I know, the idea isn't tempting at all, but it has to be done. Ah, after you're done with this, if you're feeling better… I'm sure Mrs. Linderman would love to have a chat with you."

"It's not like I have a choice, is it?"

"Don't make it sound like we're the bad guys; we are not."

"You will excuse our disbelief, I hope," replied Sylar.

"Whatever. I'll see you in an hour, Elizabeth. Rest," said Grace, and she went out of the room closing the door behind her. Elizabeth sighed and closed her eyes, while Sylar walked to the window to watch the sunset.

"I just don't get what they want from us," Elizabeth said quietly.

Maybe this Mrs. Linderman can tell us," replied Sylar, without turning.

"Everyone knows more about me than myself. I hate it. What's so special about this blood? I was given a transfusion once, but I didn't feel that good after…"

Those words were enough to make Sylar move away from the window and to Elizabeth's bedside. He observed the blood bag for a second, and then looked at Elizabeth.

"My guess is that blood belongs to a blonde cheerleader from Texas I've met some time ago. She wasn't that easy to find… but her ability was too rare, I had to take it."

Elizabeth grimaced as the dark feelings she came to associate with Gabriel's lust for power and blood invaded her head. But there was something else… something different about that girl.

He didn't kill her either.

"She didn't die. Right?"

"That's her ability. It's also how I survived your rage outburst."

"Considering what happened, I'm glad you had that ability. Does that make me a bad person? That I'm not sorry for that girl?"

"I'm probably the last person you should ask that question, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth smiled. "Probably. Anyway… that stuff's good. I'm already feeling better."

"Good. Next time we'll try to get away, we'll make it."

"I'm not sure of that, Gabriel. They seem to know a great deal about my ability, and you. I don't think we'll be so lucky to have a second chance," said Elizabeth, sitting on the bed. After a second, she decided she was feeling good enough to stand, and using the IV pole as support she slowly walked to the window to give a good look to Las Vegas' skyline.

"It's so beautiful. I never saw something like this in my entire life!"

Elizabeth pressed one hand against the glass, and closed her eyes. Sylar wondered what she was doing, but it took him a glimpse to her face when she opened her eyes again to understand. She was ecstatic.

"Oh. My. God. It's incredible! All this excitement, and lust, and joy… all bottled in this city. So many shades, and they're all intoxicating! It feels so good, Gabriel," she said, with a little laugh and an expression on her face Sylar never saw before. Ok, correction… she wasn't ecstatic. She was as close as high a person could be without actually taking drugs. Or maybe, as he thought while he took Elizabeth back to her bed, those emotions were like a drug to Elizabeth. Like she said earlier, nothing was dangerous, until you had too much of it…

"Elizabeth?"

"I'm ok, Gabriel. Just a little overwhelmed… but in a good way!" she laughed. Sylar took her hand, and told her to focus.

"You need to stay concentrated. Enough fun for one day, don't you think?"

"For one day, probably. What about the twenty years I've spent locked up in a madhouse?"

"Baby steps, Lizzie. Baby steps. How are you feeling now?"

"Bored. This transfusion is taking forever."

"Maybe you should rest."

"I'm too excited to sleep," she said, eyeing the flatscreen in the living room. "And I haven't seen a movie since forever…"

He could feel her in the back of his head, pushing and trying to make him say yes. Sylar sighed, wondering again how Elizabeth could change mood so fast. It was like there were a myriad different girls, and he still felt like he never get a hold of the real Elizabeth. Not the stoned one, or the sick one, or the terrified one. Just Elizabeth, the way she was supposed to be.

Since Elizabeth had no idea of what to watch, Sylar chose for the both of them an old black and white comedy with Clark Gable, fun, witty and easy to follow, just what they needed to unwind. Elizabeth frowned at first – as she said, she had never seen a movie like that in her life – but she soon get caught up by the story and stopped feeling so restless. She couldn't help but think Gabriel chose that movie on purpose: it was the story of a journalist and a young heiress obliged by circumstances to travel together and to pretend they were a couple. Sounded incredibly familiar... minus the ending, of course. The couple in the movie got together in the end, and Elizabeth knew that even if she had grown to trust Gabriel with her life, she would never feel comfortable enough to get intimate with a man ever again. The mere thought was enough to give her shivers.

Grace came back with a doctor just a few minutes before the movie ended, and after he detached Elizabeth from the tubes he also gave her another quick check up.

"I'm fine," protested Elizabeth, but the doctor just ignored her. After he declared her perfectly healthy, he excused himself and left the room, leaving Grace with Elizabeth and Sylar.

"Good. Ready to go?"

"To meet this mysterious Mrs. Linderman," commented Elizabeth. "But what does she want with us?"

"Just a little more patience," Grace said with a smile, and motioned the couple to follow her to the personnel's area, and then in the kitchens. Elizabeth and Sylar exchanged quite the perplexed look when Grace excused herself and left them there, surrounded by cooks and waiters. One of them, an elderly woman, was taking out of the oven a batch of fresh cinnamon rolls, while asking to one of the cooks if the other dishes were ready.

"When everything is ready, send the food in the suite," said the woman, unbuttoning the uniform. The clothes she was wearing underneath are too expensive for a simple employee. "I'm hungry… and so are my guests," she said, greeting Elizabeth and Sylar with a smile. "Aren't you?"

"Who are you?" asked Sylar.

"That's a good question. I had many names in my life. Right now, I'm Daphne Linderman, and you have no idea how pleased I am to see you both here, alive and well. It's a miracle."

Elizabeth frowned. "Stop talking in riddles. What do you want from us?"

Daphne left the jacket on a metal table, and moved closer to Elizabeth.

"You tell me, Elizabeth. Take a good look."

Elizabeth didn't let her ask twice, and carefully analyzed every feeling and emotion she could sense in the woman, enough to make her knees shake. Sylar wrapped an arm around her waist to sustain her, but Elizabeth kept looking at Daphne in complete shock. Sylar shot her a death glare; he was ready to use his abilities – he could feel them finally coming back – but Elizabeth stopped him.

"Gabriel, I'm fine. I'm fine, everything is okay," she whispered, and suddenly she was crying and smiling at the same time. She gently removed Sylar's hand and moved a couple of steps towards Daphne. Sylar didn't understand what was going now. Elizabeth's behavior was unpredictable, but this was something different.

Daphne looked at Elizabeth with a proud look in her eyes, and then engulfed her in a tight embrace that Elizabeth fiercely returned. For a few minutes it was like the two women just forgot about him, then Daphne let the girl go, and extended her hand to Sylar.

"I'm very sorry for my manners, Gabriel. But I hope you understand… it's been a long, long time since we've seen each other."

Sylar's eyes slowly shifted from Daphne's face to Elizabeth's. Daphne was still holding her close, and Elizabeth was smiling, happier than he'd ever seen her. Elizabeth nodded as she felt his confusion, and said they really had nothing to worry about, that they were really safe there.

"And how do you know this?"

"Because I know her," replied Elizabeth. "She would never hurt me."

Sylar could feel her joy and excitement in his head. Elizabeth looked straight in his eyes, and her smile grew bigger.

"Gabriel… meet my grandmother."


End file.
